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About Google Book Search Google's mission is to organize the world's information and to make it universally accessible and useful. Google Book Search helps readers discover the world's books while helping authors and publishers reach new audiences. You can search through the full text of this book on the web at jhttp : //books . qooqle . com/ LADY M ■ - f% jVJiO \~ i n r LADY MAUDE'S MANIA. SYON LODGE, ISLEWORTH. VZcZ^ZZ- ^ rp-^.* &-**.< s4J^~ \ XovclVe International Series, tflo. 136, LADY MAUDE'S MANIA A TRAGEDY IN HIGH LIFE BY GEORGE MANVILLE FENN AUTHOR OF I "THE MYNN'S MYSTERY," "THE HAUTE NOBLESSE," ETC., ETC. tAutbori^ed Edition Uc, NEW YORK UNITED STATES BOOK COMPANY SUCCESSORS TO JOHN W. LOVELL COMPANY I50 WORTH ST., COR. MISSION PLACE V ': V'- .'. \ii.;k !,':•" 1! :• i;-Y 79565R Copyright, 1890, BY UNITED STATES BOOK COMPANY. LADY MAUDE'S MANIA. CHAPTER I. A HIGH FAMILY. " CON — FOUND those organs ! " said the Earl of Bar- mouth. "And frustrate their grinders/ 1 cried Viscount Diphoos. " They are such a nuisance, my boy." " True, oh sire," replied the viscount, who had the heels of his patent leather shoes on the library chim- ney-piece of the town mansion in Portland Place. He had reached that spot with difficulty, and was smoking a cigar, to calm his nerves for what he called the operation. " Tom, my boy." " Yes, gov'nor." " If her ladyship faints " " If what ? " cried the viscount, bringing his heels into the fender with a crash. " If — if — don't speak so sharply, my dear Tom ; it jars my back, and sets that confounded gout jigging and tearing at me all up my leg. I say, if her lady- ship frints when we come back from the church, will 4 LADY MAUDE'S MANIA. you be ready to catch her. I'm afraid if I tried I should let her down, and it would look so bad before the servants." " Be too heavy for you, eh, gov'nor ? " said Tom, grinning, as he mentally conjured up the scene. "Yes, my boy, yes. She has grown so much stouter and heavier, and I have grown thinner and lighter since — since the happy day twenty-six years ago when I married her, Tom — when I married her. Yes, much stouter since I married her. How well I remember it all. Yes: it was an easterly wind, I recollect, and your poor dear mamma — her ladyship, Tom — had the toothache very badly. It made her face swell out on one side as we went across to Paris, and I had a deal of bother to get the waiter and chamber-maid to understand what a linseed-meal poultice was. Very objectionable thing a linseed- meal poultice ; I never did like the smell.'* " I should think not," said the son, watching his father seriously, the old man having a worn look, as if he had been engaged in a severe struggle with time. " Peculiarly faint odor about them. Seems only last night, and now one girl going to be married — her ladyship looking out for a rich husband for the other. Er — er — does my wig look all right, Tom ? " he continued, patting his head as he turned towards a mirror. The speaker, who was a very thin, highly-dilapi- dated old gentleman of sixty-five, heaved a deep sigh, and then bent down to softly rub his right leg. " Spiff," replied Viscount Diphoos, a dapper little boyish fellow of four-and-twenty, most carefully LADY MAUDE'S MANIA. 5 dressed, and looking as if, as really was the case, he had just been shampooned, scented, aud washed by Monsieur Launay, the French barber. " I say, gov'- nor, that tremendous sigh don't sound complimentary to your son and heir." " My dear boy — my dear Tom," said the old man affectionately, as he toddled up to the back of his son's chair, and stood there patting his shoulders. " It isn't that — it isn't that. I'm very, very proud of my children. Bless you, my dear Tom ; bless you, my dear boy ! You're a very good son to me, but I'm — I'm a bit weak this morning about Diana ; and that confounded fellow with his organ playing those melancholy tunes quite upset me." " But he has gone now, governor," said Tom. " Yes, my boy, but — but he'll come back again, he always does. Grind, grind, grind, till he seems to me to be grinding me; and I do not like to swear, Tom, it's setting you such a bad example ; but at times I feel as if I must say damn, or something inside me would go wrong." " Say it then, gov'nor, Til forgive you. There, I have granted you my indulgence." " Thank you, Tom ; thank you, Diphoos. "No, no, gov'nor. Tom! — don't Diphoos me. I wish that confounded old wet sponge of a Welsh mountain had been 'diffoosed ' before it gave me my name." "Ye — es, it is ugly, Tom. But they are family names, you see, Barmouth — Diphoos. Very old family the Diphooscs. And now this wedding — but there, I'm all right now." 6 LADY MAUDE'S MANIA. " To be sure you are, gov'nor." " Yes, yes, yes j you are very good to me, Tom. Bless you, my boy, bless you. The weak tears stood in the old man's eyes, and his voice shook as he spoke. " Nonsense, gov'nor, nonsense," said Tom, taking one of the thin withered hands. " I'm not much good to you ; I think more of cigars and billiards than anything else. Have a cigar, guv'nor ? " " No, my boy, no thank you ; it would make me smell so, and her ladyship might notice it. But, my boy, I see everything, though I'm getting a little old and weak, and don't speak. You stand between her ladyship and me very often, Tom, and make matters more easy. But don't you take any notice of me, my boy, and don't you think I sighed because I was unhappy, for — for I'm very proud of you, Tom, I'm deuced proud of you, my boy ; but it does upset me a bit about Diana going. India's a long way off, Tom." " Yes, gov'nor, but old Goflle isn't a bad sort. The old lady wanted a rich husband for Di, and she has got him. Di will be quite a Begum out in India.'' " Ye — es, Tom ; and I suppose all the female Di- phooses marry elderly husbands and marry well. I am a •bit anxious about Maude, now." " No good to be. The old girl will settle all that. .But I say, gov'nor, what a set of studs ! Come here J one of them's unfastened. You'll lose it." tC I hope not, my boy — I hope not," said the old man, anxiously as his son busied himself over the shirt- front. " Her ladvship would be so vexed. She has LADY MAUDE'S MANIA. taken care of them these ten years, and said I had better wear them to-day." " Did she ? " said Tom, gruffly. " There : that will do. Why, you look quite a buck this morning. That wig's a regular fizzer. Old Launay has touched you up." " I'm glad I look well, Tom, deuced glad," said the old man, brightening up with pleasure. " And you think Goole's a nice fellow ? " " Ye — es," said Tom, " only, hang it all, gov'nor, there's no romance about it. They are both so con- foundedly cool and matter-of-fact. Why if I were going to be married, I should feel all fire and excite- ment." * No, my boy, no — oh, no," said the old man sadly ; and he shook his head, glancing nervously at the glass the next moment to see if his wig was awry, w You read about that sort of thing in books, but it doesn't often come off in fashionable life. I — I — I remember when — when I married her ladyship, it was all very matter-of-fact and quiet. And there was that poultice. But you will stand by and catch her if she faints, Tom ? " " Oh, she won't faint, gov'nor," said Tom, curling up his lip. " I — I — I don't know, my boy, I don't know. She said that very likely she should. Mammas do faint, you know, when they are losing their children. I feel very faint myself, Tom : this affair upsets me. I should like just one glass of port." u No, no, don't have it, gov'nor ; it will go right down into your toe. Have a brandy and seltzer." i 8 LADY MA UDE'S MA NIA . " Thank you, Tom, my boy, I will," said the old man, rubbing his hands, " I will — I will. Ring for it, will you, Tom, and let Robbins think it's for you." " Why, gov'nor ? " cried Tom, staring, as he rang the bell. " Well, you see, my boy," said the old man, stoop- ing to gently rub his leg ; "after that last visit of the doctor her ladyship told the servants — told the servants that they were not to let me have anything but what she ordered." Tom uttered an angry ejaculation, waited a few moments, leaped from his chair, and began sawing away furiously at the unanswered bell. " He's — he's a fine bold young fellow, my son Tom," muttered the old man to himself as he sat down, and began rubbing his leg ; " I dare not ring the bell like that— like that." " Look here, gov'nor," cried Tom, passionately, " I won't have it. I will not stand by and see you sat upon like this. Are you the master of this house or no ? " "Well, Tom, my boy," said the old man, feebly, and with a weak smile upon his closely shaven face, " I— I— I ought to be." " Then do, for goodness' sake, take your position. It hurts me, dad, it does indeed, to see you humbled so before the servants. I'll pay proper respect to her ladyship, and support her in everything that's just, but when it comes to my old father being made the laughing-stock of every body in the house, I — I — there, damme, sir, I rebel against it," As Tom seized the bell again, and dragged at it savagely, the old man seemed deeply moved. He LADY MAUDE'S MANIA. 9 tried to speak, but no words would come, and rising hastily he limped to the window, and stood looking out with blurred eyes, trying to master his emotion. " Thank you, Tom," he said, speaking as he looked out of the window. " But after the doctor's last visit her ladyship told all the servants — Todd's very par- ticular, you know." Tom said something about Doctor Todd that sounded condemnatory. " Yes, my dear boy," said the earl, " but " Just then the door opened, and a ponderous-look- ing butler, carefully dressed, with his hair brushed up into a brutus on the top of his head, and every bristle closely scraped from a fat double-chin which reposed in folds over his stiff white cravat, slowly entered the room. " Why the devil isn't this bell answered, Robbins ? " cried Tom. " Very sorry, my lord, but I thought " " Confound you ! how dare you think ? You thought my father rang, and that you might be as long as you liked." " Ye — yes, my lord. I thought his lordship rang." " Yes, you thought right," cried Tom. " His lord- ship rang for some brandy and seltzer. Look sharp and get it." " Yes, my lord, but " " Only a very little of the pale brandy in it, Robbins — about a dessert-spoonful," said the earl, apologeti- cally. " Fete** the spirit-stand and two bottles of seltzer, Robbins," roared the young man. "And look io LADY MAUDE'S MANIA. sharp," he added in a tone of voice which sent the butler off in post-haste. u That's a flea in his fat old ear," crid the young man, laying his hand on his father's shoulder. " And now look here, gov'nor, you would please me very much if you would stand up for your rights. You know Td back you up." " Would it please you, Tom ? " said the old man, gazing in his son's face, and patting his shoulder. " Well, I'll— I'll try, Tom, 111 try ; but— but— I'm afraid it's too late." " Nonsense, gov'nor. Come, it will make things more comfortable. Keep an eye, too, on Maude. I don't want her to be married off to a millionaire whether she likes him or no." " I'll try, my boy, I'll try," said the old man, in a hopeless tone of voice. " Her ladyship said " " Who's that for, Robbins ? " cried a deep masculine- feminine voice outside the door, just as the jingle of glasses on a silver waiter was heard. "For Lord Diphoos, my lady," was the reply, in a voice that seemed to come through a layer of eider down, and the door was thrown open ; there was a tremendous rustling of silk, and Lady Barmouth, a stout, florid, well-preserved woman of forty-eight, swept into the room. " Ah, my dear child," she exclaimed in a pensive, theatrical tone of voice, as she spread her skirts care- fully around her, and exhaled a peculiarly strong scent of eau-de-cologne, " this is a terribly trying time." "Awfully," said Tom, shortly. "That will do, Robbins ; I'll open the seltzer." Then, as the butler LADY MAUD&S MANIA. II let the, room — " Awfully trying — quite a martyrdom for you, mamma. Have a brandy and seltzer ? " " My dear child ! " exclaimed her ladyship, in a tone of remonstrance, and leaning one hand upon a chair so as not to disarrange the folds of her costly moir£ antique, she tenderly applied the corner of her lace handkerchief to her lips, and after gazing at it furtively to note a soft pink stain, she watched her son as he poured a liberal allowance of pale brandy into a tall engraved glass, skilfully sent the cork flying from a seltzer bottle, filled up the glass with the sparkling mineral water, before handing it to his father. " There, gov'nor," he exclaimed ; " try that." " Tom, my dear child, no, no/' cried her ladyship. " Anthony ! No ! Certainly not." "Yes, there is too much brandy, 'my dear boy," said the old gentleman, hesitating. " Nonsense ! Rubbish ! You drink that up, gov'nor, like medicine. You're unstrung and ready to break down. Come : have one, mamma." " My dear child ! '* began her ladyship, as she darted a severe look at her husbend — "Ah, my darling." This last was in the most pathetic of tones, for the library door once more opened, and a very sweet- faced fair-haired girl, in her bridesmaid's robe of palest blue, and looking flushed of cheek and red of eye with weeping, led in the bride in her diaphanous veil, just as she had issued from the hands of Justine Framboise, her ladyship's Parisian maid, through which veil, and beneath the traditional wreath of 12 LADY MAUDE* S MANIA. orange-blossoms, shone as charming a face as bride- groom need wish to see. " There," exclaimed the bridesmaid in a tone of forced gaiety, " as Justine says, ne touchez pas. You are only to have a peep." " Maude, you ridiculous child," cried her ladyship, " you have been crying, and look dreadful, and — there, I declare it is too bad. You have been making your sister weep too." 4< I couldn't help it, mamma," cried the girl, pas- sionately ; and the tears that had been waiting ready burst out afresh. "This is too absurd," exclaimed her ladyship, impatiently. " Maude, you ridiculous girl : you are destroying that costly dress, and the flowers will be all rags." "Yes, why 'don't you leave off — you two," cried the brother, cynically, " playing at being fond of one another," while the old man looked piteously on. " Oh, Diana, Diana," continued her ladyship, "here have I made for you the most brilliant match of the season — an enormously wealthy husband, who liter- ally worships you " "I don't believe he cares for her a bit," cried Maude, flushing up, speaking passionately, and giving a stamp with her little white kid boot. " And if I were Di, I wouldn't marry a snuffy old man like that for anybody. I'd sooner die." " Die game, eh ? " cried Tom. " Do you hear, Di ? " " Silence ! " exclaimed her ladyship in a tone of authority that seemed to quell the girl's burst of passion. " How dare you ! " LADY MAUDE'S MANIA. 1 3 " Pray don't be cross, mamma," said the bride, quietly. " SKe could not help crying. The marks will soon pass away." " They will not," cried her ladyship, angrily. " Sir Grantley Wilters is coming, and her nose is as red as a servant girl's, while your eyes are half swollen up. After all my pains — after all my anxiety — never was mother troubled with such thankless children." " Poor old girl ! " said Tom, taking a good sip of brandy-and-seltzer. "Anthony!" cried her ladyship, " you must not touch her. You are crushing her veil and those flowers. Oh, this is madness." Madness or not, before she could check the natural action, the earl had taken his elder daughter in his arms, and kissed her lovingly, patting and stroking her sweet face, as, regardless of wreath and veil, she flung her arms round his neck and nestled closely to him. " Bless you, my darling. I hope you will like India," he said, " Rather warm, but they make delicious curries there. I hope you will be very very happy ; " and the tears trickled down his furrowed countenance as he spoke. " I'll try to be, papa dear," she whispered, making an effort to speak firmly. " That's right, my dear. The trains are very com- fortable to Brindisi, and Tom says that Goole isn't such a very bad fellow." " Anthony, are you quite mad ! " cried her lady- ship, wringing her hands till her diamonds crackled. " Are you all engaged in a conspiracy against me ? 14 LADY MAUDE'S MANIA. Such a display is perfectly absurd. The child will not be fit to be seen at the church." " Yes, yes, mamma dear," said the girl cheerfully. " There, there, Maude will put me straight in a few moments. Kiss me, dear, and I'll go upstairs again ; it must be nearly time." For the sake of the dresses of herself and daughter, her ladyship did not let the bride come too close, but brushed the cheek lightly with her lips ; and then the girl turned to her brother, holding out her hands. He took them, gazing at her at arm's length with mingled pride and sorrow. Then the bridal dress was once more forgotten, and brother and sister were tightly locked in each other's arms. Her ladyship uttered a wail of dismay, but it was not heeded, as Tom said in a low tone — " Keep up your pecker, Di, old girl. It's all non- sense about love and that sort of thing. It's duty toward your mother, catechism fashion, and you've done it. You're sold into bondage, eh ? " " Yes, Tom dear," she said, cheerfully. u I shall not mind." " With all Goole's money to play with I should think not." "I did not mean that, dear," said the girl, gravely. " I seem to be going right away from you, but there is Maude; don't let her be married like I am, Tom." 41 What can I do ? " " I don't know ; only try to help her and papa. Be more at home for both their sakes — and Tryphie's." Tom started, and looked sharply in his sister's face. LADY MAUDE'S MANIA. 15 " I will, Di, I will," he said, earnestly. " I know I've been a reckless sort of beast, but I will try now." She smiled her thanks and kissed him again. Then Lady Maude of the red eyes and nose, took her sister's hand, coming up like a pretty tug to tow off some beautiful craft that had been shattered by a storm in her upper rigging, and bore her off into port for repairs. LADY MAUDE'S MANIA. CHAPTER II. NO CARDS. The crossing-sweeper, in a special uniform of rags turned up with mud, had made liberal use of his broom wherever it was not wanted, and now stood in front of Lord Barmouth's house in an attitude as if to draw attention, like a label, to his work — as if in fact morally writing fecit. Everything had been done to give eclat to the pro- ceedings, while in addition to the presents which had been on view, fair Italia sent music to lend a charm to the wedding ; for Luigi Malsano, the handsome dark performer upon the last newly-improved organ, stood at the edge of the pavement and ground, and smiled — smiled till his fine white teeth glistened in the midst of his great black beard, and every now and then took off his soft felt hat, displayed his long black curls, and rolled his eyes at Dolly Preen, the fair, fresh, country lassie — the young ladies' maid ; for Dolly was looking out of the window in company with Justine, her ladyship's attendant, to see the re- turn of the carriages, and the latter exclaimed — " Elles sont betes ces choses la ! " and then as Luigi ground and smiled, and raised his hat, Justine uttered a contemptuous — "Canaille/" LADY MA UDE'S MANIA. 1 7 While Dolly Preen sighed and thought the dark Italian very handsome. She had indulged in the same thought before." " Voila!" exclaimed Mademoiselle Justine, as the carriage with its four greys dashed up, and after a little manipulation at the side of the organ, Luigi Malsano rested a well-formed and dirty hand upon the green baize cover of his instrument, and turned out the old ballad — " Tis hard to give the hand where the heart can never be. M For after a great deal of scheming the work of the Countess of Barmouth was crowned. She had secured for her daughter a husband in the shape of the British Resident at the court of the Maharajah of Bistreskin, and to herself of selfs she had whispered like the revengeful gentleman in the French ro- mance — " One ! " For it was all over. The carriages had nearly blocked the street, and the crowd had completed the block. The church had been well filled by friends and those curious people who always attend weddings. The ceremony had been performed by a dean, assisted by a canon, and an honorary chaplain to Her Majesty. The bride looked lovely and calm as a statue, though the six bridesmaids in pale blue had sobbed softly, and mourned like so many doves, as they moistened their lace handkerchiefs with a briny dew of pearls, almost as bright as those of the handsome lockets they 2 18 LADY MAUDE'S MANIA. wore — all alike, and the presents of the bridegroom. They were bouquets of the choicest exotics inside the church, and without, for the servants were as liberally supplied as they were with favors; and at last the bridegroom's barouche with four of Newman's best grays had borne the happy pair back to the paternal mansion in Portland-place. There had not been a single hitch, and even her ladyship had held up with a fine Niobe-like expres- sion upon her noble features all through the service. Certainly she had turned faint once at the " I will," but by the help of strong aromatic salts she had re- covered herself, and smiled sadly round as if to lend sweetness to the flowers. And now the large party were back in the drawing-room, and preparing to descend to the wedding breakfast. The fashionable pastry-cooks had been ordered to do their best, and this they had done. There were more of those ghastly sugar plaster edifices on the table than usual ; more uneatable traps for the un- wary ; more hollow mockeries, goodly to the eye, but strange to the taste — preparations that society con- siders to be de rigueur at a wedding. Still in ad- dition there was all that money could procure ; fruit and flowers flourished amidst handsome glass and family plate ; the servants were in new liveries, and with plenty of aides stood ready ; for Lady Barmouth hoped in marrying one daughter to help on the en- gagement of the second, saying pensively to herself, " And then I shall feel that I have not lived in vain." " I say, how's the leg? " said a severe-looking gen- tleman present "Twinges, eh ? Yes, so I suppose. LADY MAUDE'S MANIA. 19 Easy with the good things, mind, or else — you know." " Yes, yes, twinges, doctor," said his lordship, stoop- ing to have a rub at the offending, or rather offended and resenting, limb. But you are in such a doosed hurry; you always ask me another question before I've scarcely had time to answer the first. I remem- ber, I remember — now, hang him ! look at that. Confound that Lord Todd ! I wish I was his doctor for a week or two." For the family practitioner had passed on to talk to somebody else, leaving his lordship slowly passing his tongue over his lips, and trying to add another wrinkle to his forehead, as he wondered whether he could smuggle in two or three glasses of champagne without being seen by her ladyship or Doctor Todd." " Ah, my dear Mr. Melton," said the latter, " how are you ? " *• Quite well, doctor," said the young man ad- dressed, as he passed his hand over his crisp golden beard, and smiled pleasantly at the medical man, whose eyes were playing all over the room, and who now crossed to where the young bride was standing. " I say," he exclaimed, " I did not congratulate you in the church. God bless you, my dear ! may you be very happy. And only the other day you were a baby, eh ?" He nodded, smiled, and passed on to where a very elderly-looking fair young man, elaborately dressed, was talking to a stout mamma — the mother of two of the bridesmaids. The withered-looking gentleman, who blinked a good deal, and seemed as if the light was too strong 20 LADY MAUD&S MANIA. for him, turned to speak to the doctor as he ap- proached. " Well," said the latter—" better ? " "Yas, I think so; yas, doctor, but you know I can't think what ails my constitution." ."I can," thought the doctor, as he turned away looking sharply round the room ; " luxury, late hours, too much money, and nothing sensible to do. Blase fool ! Oh, there she is." He crossed as quickly as the crowded state of the room would allow him to where Lady Maude was standing, and made her start as he said sharply — " I say, when's your turn coming ? " " Never, I hope, doctor," was the reply, as a little hand was placed in his, " never, if it is to make me so wretched as poor darling Di. Do say something kind to her if you have a chance." " Hum — ha — yes," he said thoughtfully, as he re- tained the little hand and seemed to be examining a patient. Don't seem bright, eh ? " " Oh, no, doctor," whispered Maude. " But I'm so glad you've come." "That's right, my dear; I would come. So I will when you are married — the same as I did when you were born," he said to himself. Then aloud — " I say, when you marry, my dear, you marry for love." " I will, doctor," cried the girl with her blue eyes flashing, and just then Luigi of the organ struck up a languishing waltz. " But I really am so glad you've come. Do talk to papa and cheer him up. He is so low-spirited. Couldn't you give him a tonic ?" ''Wish I could," said the doctor. " Tincture of LADY MAUDE'S MANIA. 21 youth. No, my dear. I can't make the old young. Glad I've come, eh ? There's my little friend Try- phie yonder. But they are going to move, I see." Her ladyship was still very pensive, and gazed ap- pealingly round from one to the other of her guests ; but her eyes were wonderfully wide open, and she moved about like a domestic field-marshal determined to carry out her social campaign with iclat. "Sir Grantley," she said, softening her voice down to a contralto coo as she laid her fan on the arm of the elderly young man, whose face on one side was all eyeglass and wrinkles, on the other blank, " will you take down my daughter ? " " Charmed, I'm shaw," was the hesitating reply, as a puzzled look came over the baronet's face; "but her husband, don't you know ? " " I mean Lady Maude," said her ladyship, with a winning smile. " Yes, of course ; beg pardon, I'm shaw," said the baronet hastily, and he crossed the room with her ladyship in a weak-kneed fashion, and apparently .suffering from tight boots. But it so happened that a flank movement had been set on foot by Viscount Diphoos. " Charley, old man," he was saying to the visitor with the fair beard, who now, as he stood in one of the windows, showed himself to be a fine, broad- shouldered fellow of about eight or nine and twenty, with a fair Saxon forehead half-way down to his brows, where it became ruddily tanned, as if by ex- posure to the air. " Charley, old man, go across and nail Maude at once, or the old lady will be handing 22 LADY MAUDE'S MANIA. her over to that wretched screw, Wilters. — Have you seen Tryphie ? " u There she is, over in the far corner, talking to the doctor," said the young man addressed — a bosom friend of the viscount : Charley Melton, the son of a country gentleman with a very small income and no prospects, unless a cousin in the navy should kindly leave this world in his favor, when he would be heir to a title and a goodly domain. He crossed the room quickly to where Lady Maude was standing, and a curious, conscious look appeared on the girl's face as he approached. There was a warm rosy hue in her cheeks as their eyes met, and then, happy and palpitating, she let her little fingers press very timidly the strong muscular arm that held them to the side within which beat — beat — beat, rather faster than usual, Charley Melton's heart, a habit it had had of late when fortune had thrown him close to his companion. Her ladyship saw the movement as she was approaching with Sir Grantley Wilters, and darted an angry look at her daughter and another at her son. Then, with her face all smiles, she brought up her light cavalry and took her son in the flank in his turn. " So sorry, Sir Grantley," she said sweetly ; u we were too late. Will you take down my niece ? " " Yas, delighted," said Sir Grantley, screwing the whole of his face up till it formed a series of concen- tric circles round his eye-glass. "But who is that fellow ? " " Friend of my son," said her ladyship in the most confidential way. " Very nice manly fellow, and that LAD Y MA UDE'S MANIA . 23 sort of thing. Tryphie, my dear, Sir Grantley Wilters will take you down," she continued, as she stopped before a little piquante, creamy-skinned girl with large hazel eyes, abundant dark-brown hair, and a saucy-looking little mouth. She had a well- shaped nose, but her face was freckled as liberally as nature could arrange it without making the markings touch : but all the same she was remarkably bright and pretty. " Sold ! " muttered Tom, spitefully, as he saw her ladyship beaming upon him after striking him in his tenderest part. But he was consoled a little the next moment as Maude gave him a grateful glance, look- ing as happy and bright as Melton himself, while as Tryphie took the proffered arm of Sir Grantley Wilters, whose face expressed pain above and a smile below, the sharp little maiden made a moue with her lips expressive of disgust at her partner, and gave Diphoos a glance which made him feel decidedly better. "I don't like that fellow, Tom, my boy," said Lord Barmouth, sidling up to his son, and bending down for a furtive rub at his leg. " Damme, Tom, I don't believe he's forty, and he looks as old as I do. If her ladyship means him to marry little Tryphie there, I shan't — shan't like — like — Damme, it would be too bad." " Hang it all, gov'nor ; don't talk like that," cried Tom, impatiently. " No, no, certainly not, my boy, certainly not ; but I say, Tom, that's a doosed nice boy that young Charley Melton. I like the look of him. He's a 24 LADY MAUDE'S MANIA. manly sort of a fellow. Your uncle and I were at Eton with his father years ago. I say, Tom," he continued, rubbing his leg, " he wouldn't make a bad match for our Maude. Yes, yes, my dear ; I'm coming." " Anthony, for shame ! " whispered her ladyship. "They are all waiting. Lady Rigby. I've been looking for you. Take her down at once." The earl crossed over to make himself agreeable to Lady Rigby, the stout mamma ; and the hostess took counsel with herself. " Either would do," she said. " But Mr. Melton's attentions will bring Sir Grantley to the point." A few minutes later the guests were seated at the wedding breakfast, while Dolly Preen again leaned out of the window, having returned there after attending to the bride, to whom two fresh pocket- handkerchiefs were supplied. Luigi of the organ was still below, handsome and smiling as he scented good things, and he played on as Mistress Preen listened and thought of love and marriage, and music, and how handsome Italian men were, and ended by doing as she had done for many weeks, wrapping a three-penny piece up in many papers and dropping it into Luigi's soft felt hat. For how could she offer coppers to such a man as that ! She was not the only one who dreamed of love, for Justine Framboise, her ladyship's maid, was enjoying a pleasant flirtation with Monsieur Hector Launay, Coiffeur de Paris, from Upper Gimp Street, Mary- lebone, a gentleman whose offices were largely in request in Portland-place, and who that morning had LADY MAUDE'S MANIA. 25 left his place of business in charge of a boy, so that he might perform certain capillary conjuring tricks, and then stay and look in the eyes of the fair Justine — a French young lady, who would have been a fortune to her father if she had been a dentist's daughter, so liberally did she show her fine white teeth. The said flirtation took place upon the stairs, and Perkins, the bride's new maid, took interest therein, to the neglect of her packing and the annoyance of Henry, the Resident's man, with whom she was to ride in the rumble, and then second-class to Paris that day on the honeymoon trip. For Monsieur Hector, with all the gallantry of the fair city from which he hailed, had called Perkins, in Henry's hearing, une demoiselle c/iarmante. "Like his furren imperdence," as Henry said, and then the said Henry had to go in and stand behind his master's chair. As soon after three parts of a bottle of champagne was passed upstairs with a glass by a kindly disposed waiter, the packing of the newly-married lady went on worse than ever, and several traveling-cases were left unfastened in the bed-room. " I say," whispered Tom, going behind her lady- ship's chair, " you are never going to let the gov'nor speak ? " " Yes, certainly. He must," said her ladyship in a decisive tone ; and she turned to the guest on her right. " But he'll break down as sure as a gun," remon- strated the son. 26 LADY MAUDE'S MANIA. " I have prompted him, and he knows what to say," replied her ladyship. " Go back to your place. " " Oh, just as you like," grumbled Tom ; and he returned to his seat, determined in his own mind to stand behind his father's chair, and to prompt him to the best of his ability. The breakfast went on amidst the pleasant tinkle of glass and plate, the conversation grew louder, there was the frequent pop of champagne corks, and the various couples grew too much engrossed to notice what took place with their neighbors. " Maude," said Charley Melton at last, " if you were put to the test, should you give up any one you loved, and accept a comparative stranger because he could do as that man has done — load you with diamonds ? " She turned her eyes to his with a reproachful look, and the color suffused her face. " No one can hear what I say," he whispered, with his eyes fixed upon his plate. " But listen to me. I feel that it is almost madness, but I love you very, very dearly. You know it — you must know it. Ever since we met, six months since, you have been my sole thought. I ought not to speak, but I cannot keep it back waiting for an opportunity that may never come. And if some day I awoke to the fact that I had made no declaration and another had carried you off, I believe I should go mad. Give me one word of hope. I am very poor — terribly poor, but times may change, and money does not provide all the happiness of life. — Not one word ? Have I been deceived ? Was I mad to think that you met LADY MAUDE'S MANIA. 27 me these many times with pleasure ? Give me one word — one look." * I mustn't," said Lady Maude, coloring. " Mamma is giving you one." Charley Meltori gave an unintentional kick under the table, touching his opposite neighbor so hard that he turned reproachfully to the gentleman at his side. "Oh, Lady Maude!" groaned Charley in tragic tones. There was a hearty laugh here at some sally made by the doctor, and Maude whispered back in a husky voice — " I dare not look at you ; " and he saw that the color was mounting to her temples. " One word then," he whispered, as the conversa- tion waxed louder, but there was no reply. " Maude," he said, in a low deep voice, " I will not believe you to be cold — heartless." " Oh no," she sighed. " Then give me one word to tell me that I may hope." Still no reply, as the lady sat playing with the viands upon her plate ; then her face turned slightly towards him ; her long lashes lifted softly, her eyes rested for a moment upon his, and he drew a long breath of relief, turning composed and quiet the next moment as he leaned towards her, saying " I never felt what it was to be truly happy until now." " Nonsense ? " said the doctor loudly, after just finishing a very medical story — one he always told 1 28 LADY MAUD&S MANIA. after his third glass of champagne, " I can assure you it is perfectly true. Good — isn't it ? She really did elope with her music-master. Fact, — twins.'* Several ladies looked shocked, for Lady Rigby, the stout mamma, an old patient, had laughed loudly, and then wiped her mouth with her lace hand- kerchief as if to take off the smile of which she felt rather ashamed, for her countenance afterwards looked preternaturally solemn. The earl had escaped the usual supervision, and he also had partaken of a glass of champagne or two — or three — and he thoroughly enjoyed the doctor's story. "It puts me in mind of one," he said, with a chuckle. " You know it, doctor. If the ladies will excuse its being a little indelicate. Quite medical though, quite." " I am quite sure that Lord Barmouth would not say anything shocking/' said the stout mamma, and she began to utter little dry coughs, suggestive of mittens, and muffins, and tea. " Of course not — of course not, I — I — I wouldn't say it— say it on any consideration," said his lordship, chuckling. " It — it — was about a friend of mine who built a house by Primrose Hill, he — he — he! It's quite a medical story, doctor, over the railway, you know." "The old girl will be down upon him directly," thought Tom. " Capital story," said the doctor, laughing, and glancing sidewise at her ladyship. " There'll be an eruption directly," he added to himself. LADY MAUDE'S MANIA. 29 " He — he^he ! " laughed his lordship ; " her lady- ship never lets me tell this story, does she, my dears ? " he continued, smiling at his daughters, tl but I assure you, ladies, it's very innocent. I used to go and see him when he had furnished the place, over the railway, and every now and then there used to be quite a rumble and quiver when the trains went through the tunnel ! Why, I said to him, one day — * Why, my dear fellow, I — I — I ' eh ? — eh ? — eh ? Bless my heart what was it I said to him, Tom ? " " Pain, father," said Diphoos, grinning, for he had noticed the look of relief that appeared upon the ladies' faces when the hope came that the dreadful old gentleman had forgotten the story. There would not have been much Tom left if their looks had been lightning, for his words set the old gentleman off again. " Yes, to be sure : I said to him, ' My dear fellow ' — just after one of these rumbling noises made by the train in the tunnel — ' my dear boy, you must call in the doctor, or lay down some more good port wine.' — 'Why?' he said. — 'Because,' I replied, 'your house always sounds to me as if it had got a pain in its cellar ! ' Eh ! He — he ! devilish good that, wasn't it ? " No one enjoyed that feeble joke as well as the nar- rator who used to recollect it about once a year, and try to fire it off; but unless his son was there to prompt him, it rarely made more than a flash in the pan. It was observable that the conversation became very loud just then, and Charley Melton seized the 30 LADY MAUDE'S MANIA. opportunity to whisper a few words to Lady Maude — words which deepened the color on her cheeks. They were interrupted by the clapping of hands, for just then the host rose, and Tom stole gently behind him, taking the seat he had vacated, and pre- paring himself for the break down he anticipated. " Ladies and gentlemen," said his lordship, gazing meekly round like a very old Welsh mutton, " I — I — I, believe me, never rose upon such an occasion as this, and — er — and — er." He gazed piteously at her ladyship at the other end of the table, and at whose instigation, a message having been sent by Robbins the butler, he had risen. " I say I have never before risen upon such an occasion as this, but I hope that my darling <:h!ld who is about to — to — to — to — eh, what did you say, Tom my boy." " Hang it, go on, governor. Quit your roof- paternal roof," whispered Tom. " Quit your paternal roof, will shine — yes, shine in her new sphere as an ornament to society, as her mother has been before her. A woman all love, all gentleness, and sweetness of disposition." " Oh, hang it governor ; draw it mild," whispered Tom. " Yes, mild," said his lordship, " mild to a fault. Eh ? bless me, what is the matter ? " It was a favorable opportunity for a display of emotion, and her ladyship displayed it beautifully for the assembled company to study and take a lesson in maternal and wifely tenderness. Her beloved child LADY MAUDE'S MANIA. 31 was being handed over to the tender mercies of a man — was about to leave her home — about to be torn away. Her ladyship burst into an agony of tears — of wild sobbing — for she was a model of all the virtues ; but when virtues were made, nature selected another pattern and this one was cast aside. A sympathetic coo ran round the table, tears were shed, and Tom winked at Charley Melton, who kept his countenance. Then her ladyship declared that it was " so foolish," and that she was " quite well now " ; and other speeches good and bad were made. And at last the bridegroom's carriage was at the door; the bride was handed in ; there was the usual cheering ; white satin slippers and showers of rice were thrown, and the carriage rolled away. For Lady Barmouth hdd achieved one of the objects of her life — a brilliant match for her elder daughter — leaving her free to execute her plans for Maude. All had been en regie so far : the hall was filled with company ; the sound of wheels was still to be heard* rolling down the broad thoroughfare: when " I say, look out," whispered Tom to his friend. " There she goes." It was a coarse way of expressing himself, but " there " " she " did go — to wit her ladyship. Sir Grantley Wilters, whom she hoped some day to call son, was close at hand. It was quite time for her maternal feelings to assert themselves again, and they did, for she sank heavily into the nearest arms. They were not her husband's but those of the baronet, most rotten reeds upon which a lady might 33 LADY MAUDE'S MANIA. lean. The result was that as Lady Barmouth gave way, Sir Grantley did the same, and both would have fallen heavily but for Doctor Todd, who seized the baronet in time, and with extraneous help her lady- ship was placed in the porter's great chair. " Salts, and a little air : she has only fainted," said the doctor. By all the rules of family etiquette as observed in the best society, Maude should have run to her mother's side, and made one in a pathetic group : but just at the same moment she encountered Charley Melton's eyes, let her own rest upon them as a singu- lar thrill ran through her, till she wrenched them away and encountered Sir Grantley Wilters' eye- glass, and directly after she recalled a promise she had made to herself. ' " Open that door a little," said the doctor — " ajar. Some fresh air." Luigi Malsano was back in the street, and the organ struck up once more, " Tis hard to give the hand where the heart can never be," while at the same moment a dismal howl came from the doorstep and a head was thrust in, to be followed by a body rather out of proportion. It was only Charley Melton's ugly bull-dog Joby, who had followed his master to the house, and been waiting on step and in area for the said master to come. He had several times made an attempt to enter, but had been driven back by Robbins the butler, and thought of going back to his master's chambers, but at last the opportunity had come, and he too found his way in, for Luigi's music nearly drove him mad. LADY MAUDES MANIA. 33 Meanwhile the Resident's young wife was being carried towards Charing Cross en route for Brindisi— the Suez Canal — India — right away out of the country, and out of this story, leaving the stage clear for her sister's important scene. LADY MAUDE'S MANIA. CHAPTER III. DOWN IN THE COUNTRY— THE ANGEL. " Fm afraid you are not serious, Mr. Melton," said Lady Barmouth ; shaking her head at him sadly. " Serious, Lady Barmouth ; indeed I am," said Charley Melton, who was Viscount Diphoos' guest down at the Hurst, Lord Barmouth's seat in Sussex ; "and as to personal matters, my income " " Hush, hush ! you bad, wicked boy/' exclaimed her ladyship; "what do you take me for? Just as if the union of two young hearts was to be made a question of hard cash and settlements, and such mean, wretched, sordid matters. I beg you will never utter a word to me again about such things. They are shocking to me." " I am very glad to hear you say so, Lady Bar- mouth," said Melton, smiling frankly in her face, as in a gentle heaving billow style, she leaned, upon his arm, and undulated softly and tapped his fingers with her fan. " I like to think of my darling Maude as a sweet innocent girl in whose presence sueh a sordid thing as money ought never to be mentioned. There, there, there, they are calling you from the lawn, Charley Melton ; go to them and play and be happy while you have your youth and high spirits. How I envy you all sometimes ? " LAD Y MA UDE'S MANIA • 35 ** Your ladyship has made me very happy," said Melton, flushing slightly. u It is my desire to make all belonging to me happy," replied her ladyship. " I have seen Diana, my sweet child, settled, now it is my desire to see Maude the same. There, there, go away, for my eyes are weak with tears, and I feel half hysterical. Go away, my dear boy, go away." •' But you will let me see your ladyship to a seat ? " " No, no, no ; go away, go away." " Yo-hoy ! " shouted a familiar voice. " Charley Melton ! — are you coming ! " " Yes, yes, coming," replied Melton, as her lady- ship tapped him on the arm very significantly, and shook her head at him, while her eyes plaintively gazed at his. And she said to herself — "Yes, his expectations, Lady Rigby said, were excellent." The next moment he was on his way to the croquet lawn, where a gaily dressed party was engaged in preparing for a little match. " I never expected it," said the young man to himself; "and either I'm in luck's way, or her lady- ship is not the mercenary creature people say. She is evidently agreeable, and if she is, I have no fear of Lord Barmouth, for the old man likes me." " Come, old fellow," cried Tom, advancing to meet him, with the biggest croquet mallet over his shoulder that could be found in the trade. " What have you and the old lady been chatting over? She hasn't been dropping any hints about being de trop?" Melton was silent, for he enjoyed the other's interest. < 36 LAD Y MA UD&S MANIA. u If she has," cried Tom, " I'll strike : I won't stand it. It's too bad ;— it's " " Gently, gently," said Melton, smiling. " She has been all that I could desire, and it is evident that she does not look upon my pretensions to your sister's hand with disfavor." "What — disiavor? Do you mean to say in plain English that the old girl has not cut uo rough about your spooning after Maude ? " "Is that plain English?" "Never mind. Go on. What did she say ?" " Called me her dear boy, and said her sole wish was to see her child happy." " Gammon ! " said Viscount Diphoos. " She's kidding you." u Nonsense ! What a miserable sceptic you are ! " " Yes ; I know my dear mamma." " I merely quote her words," said Melton, coldly. " Then the old girl's going off her chump," said Tom. " But there, never mind ; so much the better. Charley, old man, I give you my consent." " Thank you," said Melton, smiling. 4< Ah, you may laugh, but 'pon my soul I should like you to marry Maudey. She's the dearest and best girl in the world, and I was afraid the old girl meant Wilters to have her. Well, I am glad, old man. Give us your fist. I'm sure Maudey likes you, so go in and win. Make your hay while the sun shines, my boy. Only stow all that now. It's croquet, so get a mallet. You and Maudey are partners, against Tryphie Wilder and me." He shook hands warmly with his friend, and they went down the path together. LADY MAUDE'S MANIA. 37 "I say, old man, Wilters is coming down to-day. He's been in a fine taking. Saw him in London. Day before yesterday. Said he'd lost his diamond locket. Just as if it mattered to him with all his thousands. But he's as mean as mean. I should like to get him in a line at billiards, and win a lot of money off him. I will, too, some day. Now girls ! Ready ? " They were crossing the closely shaven lawn now to where Maude, looking very sweet and innocent, stood talking to Tryphie Wilder, and she colored with pleasure as the young men advanced. Soon after the match began, and for ten minutes the two couples played vigorously and well. Then the game languished, and the various players missed their turns, and were soon in a terrible tangle, for- getting their hoops, so that at last, Tom, who was standing under a hawthorn that was one blush of pink, was heard by a knowing old thrush, sitting closely over four blue speckled eggs, to whisper in a low tone — " Don't be hard on a fellow, Tryphie dear, when you know how fond he is of you." The thrush laughed thrushly, and blinked her eyes as she recalled the troubles of matrimony : how long eggs were hatching, and what a deal of trouble the little ones were to feed when the weather was dry and worms were scarce. Just at the same time too Charley Melton and Maude had come to a stand-still where a great labur- num poured down a shower of rich golden drops, through which rained the rays of the sun, broken up 38 LADY MAUDES MANIA. into silvery arrows of light which forced themselves through the girl's fair hair, as she stood trembling and palpitating that happy June day, while Charley Melton's words grew deeper and moie thrilling in their meaning. For their theme was love, one that has never seemed tiring to young and willing ears, though it must be owned that folks do talk, have talked, and always will talk a great deal of nonsense. This was in the calm and peaceful days of croquet, before people had learned to perspire profusely over lawn-tennis as they flew into wild attitudes and dressed for the popular work. This was croquet a la Wat- teau, and in the midst of the absence of play, Lord Barmouth came slowly down the path, stepped upon the soft lawn as soon as possible, and, choosing a garden-seat in a comfortably shady nook, he sat down and began to tenderly rub his leg. " Heigho ! " he sighed ; u they, they — they say an Englishman's house is»his castle. If it is, his wife's the elephant — white elephant. Why — why don't they go on playing ? Ha, there's Tom starting," he continued, putting up his glasses. " I'd give five hun- dred pounds to be able to stoop and pick up a ball like that young Charley Melton — a strong, straight- backed young villain. And there's my son Tom, too. How he can run 1 I'd give another five hundred pounds, if I'd got it, to be able to run across the grass like my son Tom. It strikes me, yes, damme, it strikes me that my son Tom's making up to little Tryphie. Well, and he's no fool if he does.'' The game went on now for a few minutes, and then there was another halt. LAD Y MA UDE'S MANIA. 39 "I said so to Tom on the morning of Di's wed- ding," said the old gentleman, caressing his leg; "and that Charley Melton is making up to Maudey, damme that he is, and — and — and — damme, she's smiling at him, bless her, as sure as I'm a martyr to the gout." There were a few more strokes, and as many pauses, during which the old gentleman watched the players in their laurel-sheltered ground with his double glasses to his eye. " Let me see, her ladyship said he was one of the Mowbray Meltons, but he isn't. He belongs to the poor branch, but I didn't contradict her ladyship ; it makes her angry. He, he, he, he! It's — it's — it's very fine to be young and good-looking, and — and — damme, Tom, you young dog," he continued, chuckling, " I can see through your tricks. He's — he's — he's always knocking Tryphie's ball in amongst the bushes, and then they have to go out of sight to find it." The old man chuckled and shook his head till a twinge of the gout made him wince, when he stooped down and had another rub.. "Why — why — why," he chuckled again directly after, "damme, damme, if young Charley Melton isn't doing the same. He has knocked Maudey's ball in amongst the laurels, and — oh — oh — oh— you wicked young rogues— they're coming to look for it." He got up and toddled towards the young couple, patting Maude on the cheek, and giving Charley Melton a poke in the side. ' I — I — I — see through you both," he said, laugh- ing. " Won't do — won't do. Both as transparent as 40 LADY MAUDE'S MANIA. glass, and I can see your hearts playing such a tune/' He crossed to another garden seat, and sat down, putting his leg up in a comfortable position. " There," said Melton, earnestly. " You see we have both in our favor. Your father would not refuse." " Pray say no more now," said the girl, gazing up in his face. " It is so new, it troubles me. Let us go on playing. Tom and Tryphie must be waiting." "I think not," said Melton, with a quiet smile. " Maude, love, to-day I am so happy that it all seems too delightful to be real. Does it seem so to you ? " " I hardly know," she replied, turning her eyes to his for a few moments, and then lowering them ; " but somehow I feel sad with it and as if I were too happy for it to last." " Then you are happy ? " he said, eagerly. For answer she raised her eyes to his, and the game was resumed, for Tom and Tryphie came out of the shrubbery with the lost ball. " Ha, ha, ha ! " laughed his lordship. " Tom's a sad dog — a sad dog. I was just like him when I was young." He glanced to the right and left, and, seeing that he was unobserved, drew out a d'oyley from his coat- tail pocket, and from within picked out a slice of tongue and a piece of bread and butter, which he ate with great gusto, but not without turning his head from side to side like some ancient sparrow on the look-out for danger. He wiped his fingers carefully upon his handker- chief, put away the d'oyley, and smiled to himself. LADY MAUDE'S MANIA. 41 "That was nice — and refreshing," he said. "I don't suppose Robbins would miss it, and mention the fact to her ladyship. Ah," he continued, raising His glass once more to his eye, " they are having a nice game there. Why, damme, they're all courting like birds in spring-time. But Tom's a sad dog. He, he, he ! I was just like him. I was a sad dog too when I was young. I remember once when I was at Chiswick, at the Duke's — he— he — he! with Lady Ann Gowerby, I told her there was not a flower in the whole show to compare with her two lips, and I kissed her behind the laurestinus — damme, that I did, and — and — he, he, he! the old woman — the countess — came and caught us." The old man chuckled over this recollection till he had to wipe the tears out of his eyes, and then he had a fresh look at the croquet players. " Tom, you dog/' he said, " the old lady will come and catch you, and then, he, he, he! there'll be a devil of a row, for she means my little Tryphie for some one else. Eh — eh — eh ? What ! Look there now, Maudey dropped her mallet, and Charley Mel- ton picked it up and kissed her hand. Well, it's nice," he said, smacking his lips, " I was a devil of a fellow to squeeze and kiss the little girls' hands when I was a youngster, but now — " He bent down to rub his gouty leg, and uttered a low groan as he continued — "But they're all going wrong, the silly young lambs; I wish Charley Melton was well off. Her ladyship will come over it all like a cloud directly, for I know — she said so — she means Tryphie for old 42 LADY MAUDE? S MANIA. Bellman, and Maudey for that Sir Grantley Wilten*. Well, well, well, little gnats, enjoy your bit of sun- shine while you can." " Now, Charley, are you going on ? " shouted Tom in indignant tones, " two blue plays —two blue plays." " There's a dog for you," chuckled Lord Barmouth, " any one would think he had been busy over the game all the time instead of courting Tryphie." " Coming, Tom," cried Melton ; then turning to Maude he whispered, " Darling, you are mine, come what may — Maude, my love — my love ! " Their eyes met for a few moments, and from that look it was evident that the work so nearly com- pleted on the morning of the wedding party had now received the finishing strokes, that the fresh young heart had placed itself in another's keeping, and that henceforth Charley Melton was lord of someone's will, and her duty only to obey. " I ought to go and stop them," said his lordship, sadly, " but making love without thinking of money used to be nice ; but — hallo ! " he exclaimed, as a cold nose touched his hand ; and looking down there was the ugly massive face of a bull-dog gazing up into his. " Charley Melton's dog, eh ! Well, you're a very ugly dog, but you seem to like me. Eh, eh ! " he added, as, after a quiet wag of his tail, Joby smelt at his lordship's tail pocket. " So you knew there was a little bit of game pie in there, did you ! * Joby uttered a low whine. "Well, so there is, good dog," said his lordship, chuckling as he felt in his other pocket, and brought out something very unpleasant-looking crushed up as it was in a piece of paper. LADY MAUD&S MANIA. 43 * Fm afraid I have been sitting upon it, my dog," said his lordship, ruefully, "and the jelly and cold gravy have got into the crust. But you will not mind, will you ? " The dog gave a short bark, and evidently did not mind, for he and Lord Barmouth finished the last morsel of the game pie, and Joby ate the jelly- smeared paper afterwards as a kind of digestive pill. •' Ah/' said his lordship, patting the dog's head. " I'm glad of that — good dog then — for I did not now what to do with that piece of paper. Eh, eh ? whom have we here ? " he continued, putting up his glasses. " Her ladyship and Sir Grantley Wilters. There, I told you young people that you were to enjoy your game as you could, for here comes the shadow." He alluded to Lady Barmouth, who, like the good general she was, had made her plans, which were rapidly approaching fruition. 1 44 LADY MAUDE'S MANIA. CHAPTER IV. CLOUDY. Lord Barmouth was quite right, for the shadow was coming over the sunshiny portion of the young people's life in the shape of her ladyship, who could in turn assume the role of Fate or Fury. Amongst the company expected at the Hurst was Sir Grantley Wilters, and for his own reasons he had made a point of coming. He had arrived that morn- ing, and, learning from Robbins the butler that Mel- ton was there, had hastened to obtain a quiet inter* view with her ladyship. " Nothing like taking time by the forelock, don't you know," he said to himself. u Old girl evidently wants me for a son-in-law, and that fellow Melton is a doosed sight too attentive. I can see through it all, though. Old girl keeps him here to make play and draw me on. Artful, doosed artful, don't you know. But it don't matter ; suits my book. Time I did marry and settle down. Maude Diphoos is a doosed handsome girl, and'll do me credit. Til pro- pose at once." He mused thus in his bedroom, where he gave a few finishing touches to his morning toilet, and then descending to the drawing-room, he was most affec- tionately received by her ladyship, who took his arm, LADY MAUDE'S MANIA. 45 and they strolled out through the conservatory into the garden* " Such delightful weather ! " said her ladyship, lean- ing upon his arm more heavily than was pleasant to a man in tight boots, and rather weak upon his legs " Charming/' said Sir Grantley. " By the way, Lady Barmouth, we are very great friends, you and I, don't you know." " Indeed, yes," said her ladyship. " I always feel disposed to call you by your Christian name — Grant- ley." " Do," said the baronet, having a little struggle with his eye-glass — a new one of rather smaller diameter than the last — which he had lost — and which would not consent to stop in its place — " Do — like it. Fact is, Lady Barmouth, I have made up my mind to be married, don't you know." " You have ? Really ! " cried her ladyship. " I am glad;" and she adroitly turned their steps down the lilac walk in place of going straight to the croquet lawn. " Fact, I assure you," continued Sir Grantley. u It is only quite lately that I have seen any one whom I should like to make Lady Wilters; and now " " You are hopelessly in love," said her ladyship ; showing him her hundred guinea set of teeth — patent mineral, and of pearly whiteness, her best set — down to the false gums. " Oh, you young people in the days of your romance. It is too delightful in spite of its regrets for us who are in the sere and yellow leaf." Her ladyship, by the way, was very little older than Sir Grantley, and art had made her look the 46 LADY MAUD&S MANIA. younger of the two, especially as, in spite of the allusions to the yellow leaf, her ladyship's plump skin was powdered into a state of peach bloom, " Thanks, much," said Sir Grantley, wincing a little from tight boots, and greeting with delight their approach to a garden-seat. "Shall we sit down ? " " Oh, by all means," cried her ladyship ; and they took their places under the lilac which bloomed pro- fusely over their heads. " And now," exclaimed Lady Barmouth, with sparkling eyes and another sweet smile to show her hundred guinea teeth, while the plump face was covered with innocent dimples, 44 tell me, who is the dear girl ?" "Yas," said Sir Grantley, clearing his throat, and feeling decidedly better, " yas." He paused, and wiped his heated brow with a scented handkerchief. " Now this is too bad," said her ladyship, playfully. "You are teasing me." " No, 'pon honor, no," said Sir Grantley. " Fact is, don't you know, I feel a kind of nervous shrink- ing. " Ah, you young men, you young men," said her ladyship, shaking her head. " But come : tell me. Do I know her ? " " Oh, yas," said Sir Grantley. "To be sure," cried her ladyship, clapping her hands together. " It's Lady Mary Mahon. There, I've found you out." " No," said Sir Grantley. " Guess again," and this time he secured the eyeglass with a good ring of circles round it, which did not add to his personal appearance. LADY MAUDE'S MANIA. 47 " Not Lady Mary," mused her ladyship. " Well, it can't be the wealthy Miss Parminter ? " " No," said Sir Grantley, calmly ; " oh, dear, no." " Why, of course not ; I know, it's the Honorable Grace Leasome." " N — no," said Sir Grantley, with the most gentle- manly insouciance. " Try again." " I give it up," said her ladyship, smiling. " Now, Maude, it's your turn," was heard faintly from the croquet lawn. " Yas," said Sir Grantley, bowing slightly. " That is the lady. My dear Lady Barmouth, will you allow me humbly and respectfully, don't you know, to propose for your charming daughter's hand ? " Lady Barmouth sank back in her seat as if struck with horror. " Anything the matter ? " said Sir Grantley, look- ing puzzled. " Did — did I understand you aright, Sir Grantley ? " faltered her ladyship. " Aright ? Oh, yas. Sorry to be so sudden and upset you, but thought you expected it, don't you know." " My dear Sir Grantley; my dear young friend," exclaimed her ladyship, laying her hand in a sympa- thizing fashion upon his arm. "This is too pain- ful." "Well, suppose it is," said Sir Grantley, calmly. " Just lost one daughter too — charming girl, Diana — but it must come, Lady Barmouth. I've been a bit free and got rid of some money, but there's about nine thou, a year left, and then I shall have the 48 LADY MAUDE'S MANIA. Mellish estates by and by ! — another three thou.— might settle that on her, don't you know." " Oh, this is dreadful/' panted her ladyship. " My dear young friend, I should have been too happy to give my consent, but dear Maude is as good as engaged to Mr. Melton." " The dooseshe is," said SirGrantley, dropping his glass and looking blankly at his companion. " Oh, yes," exclaimed her ladyship, applying her scent bottle to her delicate nostrils. " I thought you must have seen it." " Humph ! doosid provoking, don't you know," said Sir Grantley, calmly. " Made up my mind at last, and now too late." " I am so — so — sorry," sighed her ladyship. "Can't be helped. I did mean to propose the week before last, but had to see my doctor. Melton, eh ? Doosid poor, isn't he ? " " Oh, really, Sir Grantley, I know nothing about Mr. Melton's prospects, but he is a Mowbray Melton, and a wealthy cousin is childless, and not likely to marry." " What, Dick Mowbray ? Married last week." " Mr. Melton's cousin ? " " To be sure he did, Lady Barmouth ; and besides, Charley Melton is one of the younger branch. Poor as Job." He made as if to rise, but her ladyship laid her hand upon his arm. "Stop a moment," she exclaimed. "This is a serious matter, Sir Grantley, and it must be cleared up/' LADY MAUDE'S MANIA. 49 " Don't say a word about it, please," he replied, with some trepidation. " I shall not say a word," replied her ladyship ; " but you are under a mistake, Sir Grantley. Mr. Melton has a handsome private income." " Where from ? " replied the baronet. " His father has not a rap." " Then he has magnificent expectations." " Did he tell you this ? " said Sir Grantley, screwing his glass very tightly into his eye. " N — no," said her ladyship. " There, I will be frank with you, Sir Grantley. You are a gentleman, and I can trust you." " I hope so," he replied, stiffly. " The fact is," said her ladyship, " seeing that there was a growing intimacy between my daughter and Mr. Melton, who is the son of an old Eton school- fellow of Lord Barmouth, I make some inquiries." " Yas ? " said Sir Grantley. "And I understood Lord Barmouth to say that he would be a most eligible parti for our dearest child." " Oh, indeed," said Sir Grantley, carefully examin- ing the sit of one leg of his trousers. Lady Barmouth stared at the speaker, and then shut her scent bottle with a loud snap. " If she has deceived me — tricked me over this," thought her ladyship, " I will never forgive her." " But has Mr. Melton professed this to you ? " said Sir Grantley, staring at the change which had come over his proposed mother-in-law. For the sweet smile was gone, and her thin lips were drawn tightly 50 LADY MAUDE'S MANIA. over her teeth : not a dimple was to be seen, and a couple of dark marks came beneath her eyes. "No," she said, shortly; and there was a great deal of acidity in her tone. " I must say he has not. But I must inquire into this. I trusted implicitly in what my husband, who- knew his father intimately, had said. Will you join the croquet party, Sir Grantley ? " she continued, forcing back her sweetest smile. " Yas, oh yas, with pleasure. Charmed," said Sir Grantley; and they/ose and walked towards the croquet lawn. " Dear Sir Grantley," said her ladyship, speaking once more with her accustomed sweetness, " this is a private matter between ourselves. You will not let it influence your visit ? " " Not at all." " I mean, you will not let it shorten your stay ? " " Oh, no — not at all," he replied. " Charmed to stay, I'm sure. Shan't break my heart, don't you know. Try to bear the disappointment." Five minutes later her ladyship had left Sir Grantley on the lawn, and gone off in the direction of Lord Barmouth, who saw her coming and beat a retreat, but her ladyship cut him off and met him face to face. " Tryphie," said Tom to his little cousin, " there's a row cooking." " Yes," she replied, sending her ball with straight aim through a hoop. " I saw it coming. I hope it is nothing about Maude ; she seems so happy." " Hang me if I don't think it is," said Tom. " I'm going off directly, for the old girl's started to wig the LADY MAUDE'S MANIA. 51 governor, I'm certain. I shall go and back him up after giving my mallet to Wilters. Don't make me madly jealous." " Why not ? " she replied, mischievously. "And be careful not to hit his legs," said Tom. " They'd break like reeds. — Wilters, will you take my mallet ? I want to go." "Charmed, I'm shaw," said Sir Grantley, bowing, and being thus introduced to the game, while Tom lit a cigarette and slipped away. Meanwhile Lady Barmouth had captured her husband as he was moving off, followed closely by Charley Melton's ugly dog, which no sooner saw her than he lowered his tail, dropped his head, and walked under a clump of Portugal laurel out of the way. "Barmouth," said her ladyship, taking him into custody, like a plump social policeman, " I want to speak to you." " Certainly, my dear," he said, mildly. " What is it?" " About this Mr. Charles Melton. What income has he?" " Well, my dear," said the old gentleman, " I don't believe he has any beyond a little allowance from his father, who is very poor." " And his expectations," said her ladyship, sharply. " He has great expectations, has he not ? " " I — I — I don't think he has, my love," said the old man ; " but he's a doosed fine, manly young fellow, and I like him very much indeed." " But you told me that he had great prospects." 52 LADY MAUDES MANIA. i% No, my dear, you said you had heard that he had. I remember it quite well." " Don't be an idiot, Barmouth," exclaimed her lady- ship. " Listen to me." " Yes, my dear," he said, looking at her nervously, and then stooping to rub his leg, an act she stopped by giving his hand a smart slap. " How can you be so offensive," she cried, in a low angry voice; " it is quite disgusting. Listen to me." " Yes, my dear." " I went to see Lady Merritty about this matter, and Lady Rigby." " About my gout, my dear ? " " Do you wish to make me angry, BArmouth ? " " No, my dear." "I went to see her about this young man — this Melton, and Lady Merritty told me she believed he had most brilliant expectations. But I'll be even with her for this. Oh, it was too bad ! " " What's the matter ? " said Tom, joining them. " Matter ! " cried the irate woman. " Why, evidently to gratify some old spite, that wretched woman, Lady Merritty, has been palming off upon us this Mr. Melton as a millionaire, and on the strength of it all I have encouraged him here, and only just now refused an offer made by Sir Grantley Wilters. A beggar ! An upstart ! " " Bravo, mother ! " cried Tom, enthusiastically. " So he is, a contemptible, weak-kneed, supercilious beggar. I hate him." " Hate him ? " said her ladyship. " Why, you always made him your greatest friend." LADY MAUDE'S MANIA. 53 "What, old Wilters ? " cried Tom. " Stuff! This Melton," retorted her ladyship. " Bah ! " exclaimed Tom. " I meant that thin weedy humbug, Wilters." " And I meant that wretched impostor, Melton," cried her ladyship, angrily. " Look here, mother," cried Tom. " Charley Melton is my friend, and he is here at your invita- tion. Let me tell you this : if you insult him, if I don't go bang out on the croquet lawn and kick Wilters. Damme, that I will." " He's a brave dashing young fellow, my son Tom," said his lordship to himself. " I wish I dared " " Barmouth," moaned her ladyship, " help me to the house. My son, to whom I should look for sup- port, turns upon his own mother. Alas, that I should live to see such a day ! " " Yes, my dear," said Lord Barmouth, in a troubled way, as he offered the lady his arm. " Tom, my boy, don't speak so rudely to your mamma," he continued, looking back, and they moved slowly towards the open drawing-room window. As her ladyship left the garden, Joby came slowly up from under the laurels, and laid his head on Tom's knee, for that gentleman had thrown himself on a garden seat. " Hallo, Joby," he said " you here ? I tell you what, old man, if you would go and stick your teeth into Wilters' calf — Bah ! he hasn't got a calf! — into his leg, and give him hydrophobia, you'd be doing your master a good turn." From that hour a gloom came over the scene. Lady Barmouth was scrupulously polite, but Charley 54 LADY MAUDE'S MANIA. Melton remarked a change. There were no more rides out with Maude ; no more pleasant ttte-a-tetes : all was smiles carefully iced, and he turned at last to Tom for an explanation. "I can't understand it," he said ; "a few days ago my suit seemed to find favor in her eyes; now her ladyship seems to ridicule the very idea of my pre- tentions." " Yes," said Tom savagely ; and he bit his cigar right in half. " But why, in heaven's name ? " " Heard you were poor." "Well, I never pretended otherwise." "No," said Tom, snappishly; "but I suppose some one else did." " Who ? " cried Melton, angrily. " Shan't tell," cried Tom ; " but mind your eye, my boy, or she'll throw you over." " She shall not," cried Melton, firmly, u for though there is no formal engagement, I hold to your sister, whom I love with all my heart." That evening Charley Melton was called away to see his father, who had been taken seriously ill. " So very sorry," said her ladyship, icily. " But these calls must be answered. Poor Mr. Melton, I am so grieved. Maude, my darling, Sir Grantley is waiting to play that game of chess with you." The consequence was, that Charley Melton's fare- well to Maude was spoken with eyes alone, and he left the house feeling that he was doomed never to enter it again as a staying guest, while the enemy was in the field ready to sap and mine his dearest hopes. ZAJJY MAUJ)£'S MANIA. 53 CHAPTER V. BACK IN TOWN — THE DEMON. Lady Maude Diphoos sat in her dressing-room in Portland Place with her long brown hair let down and spread all around her like some beautiful gar- ment designed by nature to hide her soft white bust and arms, which were crossed before her as she gazed in-the long dressing- glass draped with pink muslin. For the time being that dressing-glass seemed to be a framed picture in which could be seen the sweet face 0/ a beautiful woman, whose blue eyes were pensive and full of trouble. It was the picture of one greatly in deshabille; but then it was the lady's dressing-room, and there was no one present but the maid. The chamber was charmingly furnished, enough shoeing in the glass to make an effective background to the picture ; and to add to the charm there was a delicious odor of blended scents that seemed to be exhaled by the principal flower in the room — she whose picture shone in the muslin-draped frame. There is nothing very new, it may be presumed, for a handsome woman to be seated before her glass with her long hair down, gazing straight before her into the reflector ; but this was an exceptional case, for Maude Diphoos was looking right into her mirror 56 LADY MAUDES MANIA. and could not see herself. Sometimes what she saw was Charley Melton, but at the present moment the face of Dolly Preen, her maid, as that body stood half behind her chair, brushing away at her mistress* long tresses, which crackled and sparkled electrically, and dropping upon them certain moist pearls which she as rapidly brushed away. Dolly Preen was a pretty, plump, dark girl, with a certain rustic beauty of her own such as was found sometimes in the sunny village by the Hurst, from which she had been taken to become young ladies' maid, a sort of moral pincushion, into which Mademoiselle Justine Framboise, her ladyship's attendant, stuck venomed verbal pins. But Dolly did not look pretty in the glass just now, for her nose was very red, her eyes were swollen up, and as she sniffed, and choked, and uttered a low sob from time to time, she had more the air of ' a severely punished school-girl than a prim young ladies' maid in an aristocratic family. Dolly wept and dropped tears on the beautiful soft tangled hair at which Sir Grantley Wilters had often cast longing glances. Then she brushed them off again, and took out her handkerchief to blow her nose — a nose which took a great deal of blowing, as it was becoming overcharged with tears. "Oh, Dolly, Dolly," said her mistress at last, "this is very, very sad." At this moment through the open window, faintly heard, there floated, softened by distance, that deli- cious, now forgotten, but once popular strain — " I'm a young man from the country, but you don't get over me." LADY MAUDE'S MANIA, 57 Dorothy Preen, Sussex yeoman's daughter, was a young woman from the country, and was it because the air seemed apropos that the maiden suddenly uttered an ejaculation which sounded like Ow I and dropping the ivory-backed brush, plumped herself down upon the carpet, as if making a nursery cheese, and began to sob as if her heart would break ? Was it the appropriate nature of the air? No; it was the air producer. " Oh, Dolly, Dolly, I don't know what to say," said Lady Maude gently, as she gave her hair a whisk and sent it all flying to one side. " I don't want to send you back home." " No, no, no, my lady, please don't do that," blub- bered the girl. " But her ladyship is thinking very seriously about it, Dolly, and you see you were found talking to him." " Ye — ye — yes, my lady." " But, you foolish girl, don't you understand that he is little better than a beggar — an Italian mendi- cant?" " Ye — ye — yes, my lady." " Then how can you be so foolish ? " " I — I — I don't know, my lady." " You, a respectable farmer's daughter, to think of taking up with a low man who goes about the streets turning the handle of an organ. Dolly, Dolly, my poor girl, what does it mean ? " " I — I — I don't know, my lady. Ow ! I am so miserable." " Of course you are, my good girl. There, promise me you'll forget it all, and I'll speak to her ladyship, ! 58 LADY MAUDE? S MANIA. and tell her you'll be more sensible, and get her to let you stay." 11 I— I can't, my lady" "Cannot what?" " Forget him, my lady." " Why not ? " " Be — be — because he is so handsome." " Oh, Dolly, I've no patience with you." " N — n — no, my lady, because you — you ain't — ain't in love," sobbed the girl with angry vehemence, as she covered her face with her hands and rocked herself to and fro. " For shame, Dolly," cried Maude, with her face flamingly red. " If a woman is in love that is no reason for her degrading herself. I'm shocked at you." " Ye — ye — yes, my lady, bu — bu — but you don't know; you — you — you haven't felt it yet. Wh — wh — when it comes over you some day, you — you — you'll be as bad as I am. Ow! ow! ow! I'm a wretched, unhappy girl." " Then rouse yourself and think no more of this fellow. For shame of you ! " " I — I can't, my lady. He — he — he's so handsome, and I've tried ever so to give him up, but he takes hold of you like." •' Takes hold of you, Dolly ? Oh, for shame ! " " I — I d — d — d — don't mean with his hands, my lady, b— b — but with his great dark eyes, miss, and — and he fixes you like ; and once you're like I am you're always seeing them, and they're looking right into you, and it makes you — you — you feel as if you LADY MAUDE'S MANIA. 59 must go where he tells you to, and — and I can't help it, and I'm a wretched, unhappy girl." "You are indeed," said Maude with spirit. " It is degrading in the extreme. An organ-grinder — pah ! " "It — it — it don't matter what he is, my lady," sobbed Dolly. " It's the man does it. And — and some day wh — wh — when you feel as I do, miss, you'll " " Silence," cried Lady Maude. " I'll hear no more such nonsense. Get up, you foolish girl, and go on brushing my hair. You shall think no more of that wretched creature." Just at that moment, after a dead silence, an air from Trovatore rang out from the pavement below, and Dolly, who had picked up the brush, dropped it again, and stood gazing toward the window with so comical an expression of grief and despair upon her face that her mistress rose, and taking her arm gave her a sharp shake. " You silly girl ! " she cried. " But — but he's so handsome, my lady, I — I can't help it. Do — do please send him away." "Why, the girl's fascinated," thought Maude, whose cheeks were flushed, and whose heart was increasing its speed as she eagerly twisted up her hair and confined it behind by a spring band. "If — if you could send him away, my lady." " Send him away ! Yes : it is disgraceful," cried Maude, and as if moved by some strange influence she rapidly made herself presentable and looked angrily from the window. There was an indignant look in her eyes, and her lips parted to speak, but at that moment the me- 60 LADY MAUDE'S MANIA. chanical music ceased, and the bearer of the green baize draped " kist of whustles " looked up, removed his soft hat, smiled and displayed his teeth as he exclaimed in a rich, mellow voice " Ah, signora — ah, bella signora." Maude Diphoos* head was withdrawn rapidly and her cheeks paled, flushed, and turned pale again, as she stood gazing at her maid, and wondering what had possessed her to attempt to do such a thing as dismiss this man. " Ah, signora ! Ah, bella signora ! " came again from below; and this seemed to arouse Maude to action, for now she hastily closed the window and seated herself before the glass. " Undo my hair and finish brushing it," she said austerely ; " and, Dolly, there is to be no more of this wicked folly." « No, my lady." " It is disgraceful. Mind, I desire that you never look out at this man, nor speak to him again." " No, my lady." 11 1 shall ask her ladyship to look over your error, and mind that henceforth you are to be a very good girl." "Yes, my lady." There : I need say no more ; you are very sorry, are you not ? " " Ye — yes, my lady." " Then mind, I shall expect you to do credit to my interference, for her ladyship will be exceedingly angry if anything of this kind occurs again. Now, you will try ? " LADY MAUDES MANIA. 6t " Ye — ryes, my lady," sobbed poor Dolly, " Til try; but you don't know, miss, how hard it is. Some day you may feel as I do, and then you'll be sorry you scolded me so much." 44 Silence, Dolly ; I have not scolded you so much. I have only interfered to save you from ruin and disgrace." " Ruin and disgrace, my lady ? " " Yes, you foolish girl. You could not marry such a man as that. There, now go downstairs — no, go to your own room and bathe your eyes before you go down. I feel quite ashamed of you." " Yes, my lady, so do I," sobbed Dolly. " I'm afraid I'm a very wickecf girl, and father will never forgive me ; but I can't help it, and — Ow — ow — ow!" " Dolly ! Dolly ! Dolly ! There, do go to your room," cried Maude impatiently, and the poor girl went sobbing away, leaving her mistress to sit think- ing pensively of what she had said. Lady Maude Diphoos should have continued dressing, but she sat down by her mirror with her head resting upon her hand thinking very deeply of the weak, love-sick girl who had just left the room. Her thoughts were strange, and it seemed to her that so soon as she began to picture the bluff, manly, Saxon countenance of Charley Melton, the dark- eyed, black-bearded face of the Italian leered at her over his shoulder, and so surely as she made an effort to drive away the illusion, the face disappeared from one side to start out again upon the other. So constant was this to the droning of the organ far below that Maude shivered, and at last started 69 LADY MAUDES MANIA. up, feeling more ready now to sympathize with the girl than to blame as she hurriedly dressed, and pre- pared to go downstairs to join her ladyship in her afternoon drive. u Are you aware, Maude, that I have been waiting for you some time ? " " No, mamma. The carriage has not yet come." " That has nothing whatever to do with it," said her ladyship. " You have kept me waiting. And by the way, Maude, I must request that you do not re- turn Mr. Melton's very particular bows. I observed that you did yesterday in the Park, while directly afterwards, when Sir Grantley Wilters passed, you turned your head the other way." " Really, mamma, I " " That will do, child, I am your mother." " The carriage is at the door, my lady," said Rob- bins, entering the room ; and soon afterwards the ladies descended to enter the barouche and enjoy the air, "gravel grinding," in the regular slow procession by the side of the Serpentine, where it was not long before Maude caught sight of Charley Melton, with his ugly bull-dog by his legs. He bowed, but Lady Barmouth cut him dead. He bowed again — this time to Maude, who cut him alive, for her piteous look cut him to the heart ; and as the carriage passed on the remark the young man made concerning her ladyship was certainly neither refined nor in the best of taste. LAD Y MA UDE>S MANIA. 0J CHAPTER VI. NOT AT HOME. For Charley Melton's father was better, hence his presence in town, where he had sped as soon as he found that the Diphoos family had left the Hurst, where Lady Barmouth hatched matrimony. That cut in the Park was unpleasant, but nothing daunted in his determination not to be thrown over, the young man made his way next day to Portland Place, eager, anxious, and wondering whether Maude would be firm, or allow herself to be influenced by her ladyship to his downfall. Robbins unclosed the door at the great family mansion looking very severe and uncompromising. So stern was his countenance, and so stiff the bristles on his head, that any one with bribery in his heart would have felt that silver would be an insult. " Not at home." He left his card, and called next day. a Not at home." He waited two days, and called again. " Not at home." Another two days, and another call. The same answer. " Not at home." Charley Melton turned away with his brow knit, and then thought over the past, and determined that, come what might, he would not be beaten. 6* LADY MAUDE'S MANIA. The next day he went again, with his dog trotting closely at his heels. He knocked ; the door was opened by Robbins the butler, and to the usual in- quiry, that individual responded as before — " Not at home, sir." As Melton left his card and turned to go away, Joby quietly walked in, crossed the hall, and went upstairs, while his master, who was biting his lips, turned sharply back and slipped half a sovereign into the butler's hand. "Look here, Robbins," he said; "you may trust me ; what does this mean ? " The butler glanced behind him, and let the door swing nearly to as he stood upon the step. " Fact is, sir, her ladyship said they was never to be at home to you." A curious smile crossed Melton's lip as he nodded shortly and turned away, going straight back to his chambers in Duke Street, St. James', and walking impatiently up and down till he was fain to cease from utter exhaustion, when he flung himself im- patiently in his chair, and sat trying to make plans for the future. Meanwhile Joby, feeling himself quite at home in the Portland Place mansion, had walked straight into the dining-room, where the luncheon was not yet cleared away. The dog settled himself under the table, till, hearing a halting step, he had come slowly out to stand watching Lord Barmouth, who toddled in hastily, and helped himself to three or four slices of cold ham, which he was in the act of placing in his pocket as the dog touched him on the leg. LADY MAUDE'S MANIA. 65 "Eh! I'm very sorry, Robbins— I— eh ? Oh dear, how you frightened me, my good dog," he said ; " I thought it was the butler;' He was hurrying out when, thinking that perhaps the visitor might also like a little extra refreshment, he hastily took up a couple of cutlets and threw them one by one to the dog, who caught them, and seemed to swallow them with one and the same movement, pill-fashion, for they disappeared, and Joby waited for more. " I dare not take any more, my good dog," said his lordship, stooping down and patting him; and then, feeling that there was nothing more to be done here, Joby quietly trotted upstairs into the drawing- room, where Maude was seated alone, with her head resting upon her hand, and the tears silently stealing down her cheeks. She uttered a faint cry, for the dog's great blunt muzzle was laid upon her soft white hand, when, see- ing who it was, the poor girl, with a hysterical sob, threw herself down upon her knees beside the great ugly brute, flung her arms round his neck, and hugged him to her breast. " Oh Joby, Joby, Joby, you dear good dog," she sobbed, " how did you come here ? " and then, with flushed cheeks, and a faint hope in her breast that the dog's master might be at hand, she paused with her head thrown back, listening intently. But there was not a sound to be heard, and she once more caressed the dog, who, with his head rest- ing upon her shoulder, blinked his great eyes and licked his black muzzle as if he liked it all amazingly. 66 LADY MAUD&S MANIA. Maude sobbed bitterly as she knelt by the dog, and then a thought seemed to strike her, for she felt its collar, and hesitated ; then going to the table she opened a blotter, seized a sheet of note paper, and began to write. At the end of a few moments she stopped though. •' I dare not — I dare not," she sighed. " It would certainly be found out, and what would he think of me ? What does he think of me ? " she wailed. " He must believe me not worth a thought. I will send- just a line." She wrote a few words, folded the paper up small, and was taking some silk from her work-basket, when a cough on the stairs made her start and return to her chair. " She will see the dog and be so angry," thought Maude, as the rustling of silk proclaimed the coming of her ladyship, when, to her great joy Joby uttered a low growl and dived at once beneath the couch, where he curled himself up completely ought of sight. " Maude," said her ladyship, in an ill-used tone, "you are not looking so well as you should." " Indeed, mamma ? " " By no means, child ; and as I am speaking to you, I may as well say that I could not help noticing last night that you were almost rude to Sir Grantley Wilters. I must beg that it does not occur again." " Mafnma ! " " There, there, there, that will do," said her lady- ship, " not a word. I am going out, and I cannot b« made nervous by your silly nonsense," u Indeed, mamma, I " LADY MAUDE'S MANIA. ty "I will not hear excuses/' cried her ladyship. " I tell you I am going out. If Sir Grantley Wilters calls, I insist upon your treating him with proper consider- ation. As I have told you, and I repeat it once for all, that silly flirtation with Mr. Melton is quite at an end, and now we must be serious." "Serious, mamma!" cried Maude, rising; "I as- sure you " " That will do, child, that will do. You must let older people think for you. if you please. Be silent.'* Lady Barmouth sailed out of the room, and with a flush upon her countenance Maude returned to her work-basket for the silk, starting as she did so, for something touched her, and there was Joby's great head with the prominent eyes staring up at her, as if to say, " Are you ready ? " Folding her note very small, she tied it securely to the inside of the dogs collar, and then, laying her hands upon his ears, kissed his great ugly forehead. "There, good dog, take that to your master/' she said. " Go home/' The dog started up, uttered a low bark, and, as if he understood her words, made for the door. " No, no/' cried Maude, who repented now that she had gone so far ; " come back, good dog, come back What will he think of me ? What shall I do!" She ran to the door, but the dog had disappeared, and to her horror she heard the front door open as the carriage wheels stopped at the door. Trembling with dread she ran to the window and saw that the carriage was waiting for Lady Barmouth ; but what 68 LADY MAUDES MANIA. interested her far more was the sight of Joby trotting across the wide thoroughfare, and evidently making his way straight off home, where he arrived in due course, and set to scratching at the door till Charley Melton got up impatiently and let him in. "Ah, Joby," he said, carelessly; and then, heed- less of the dog — " But I'll never give her up," he said sharply, as he rose and took an old pipe from the chimney-piece, which he filled and then sat down. As he did so, according to custom, Joby laid his head in his master's hand, Melton pulling the dog's ears, and patting him with one hand, thinking of something else the while. His thoughts did not come back, even when his hand came in contact with the paper which now came off easily at his touch. Melton's thoughts were with the writer, and he had a pipe in the other hand ; but his brain suggested to him that he might just as well light the pipe, incited probably thereto by the touch of the paper which he began to open out, after putting his meerschaum in his mouth; and he was then dreamily doubling the note, when his eyes fell upon the characters, his pipe dropped from his lips and broke upon the floor, as he read with increasing excitement — " I am driven to communicate with you like this, for I dare not try to post a note. Pray do not think ill of me ; I cannot do as I would, and I am very, very unhappy." That was all ; and Charley Melton read it through again, and then stood looking puzzled, as if he could not comprehend how he came by the letter. " Why, Joby must have stayed behind to-day," he cried, ' and — yes — no — of course — here are the silken LADY MAUDE'S MANIA. 69 threads attached to his collar, and — and — oh, you jolly old brute! I'll never repent of giving twenty pounds for you again." He patted Joby until the caresses grew too forcible to be pleasant, and the dog slipped under his master's chair, while the note was read over and over again, and then carefully placed in a pocket-book and trans- ferred to the owner's breast — a serious proceeding with a comic side. " No, my darling," he said, " I won't think ill of you ; and as for you, my dear Lady Barmouth, all stratagems are good in love and war. You have thrown down the glove in casting me off in this cool and insolent manner ; I have taken it up. If I can- not win her by fair means, I must by foul." He walked up and down the room for a few min- utes in a state of intense excitement. 44 1 can't help the past," he said, half aloud. "I cannot help what I am, but win her I must. I feel now as if I can stop at nothing to gain my ends, and here is the way open at all events for a time. Joby, you are going to prove your master's best friend." LADY MAUDE'S MANIA. CHAPTER VII. DOWN BELOW, "If I had my way," said Mr. Robbins, "I'd give orders to the poliss, and every one of 'em should be took up. They're so fond of turning handles that Td put 'em on the crank. I'd make 'em grind." " You have not the taste for the music, M'sieur Robbins," said Mademoiselle Justine, looking up from her plate at dinner in the servants' hall, and then glancing side wise at Dolly Preen, who was cutting her waxy potato up very small and soaking it in gravy, as she bent down so as not to show her burn- ing face. " Haven't I, ma'amselle ? PVaps not ; but I had a brother who could a'most make a fiddle speak. I don't call organs music, and I object on principle to a set of lazy ronies being encouraged about our house." Dolly's face grew more scarlet, and Mademoiselle Justine's mouth more tight as a couple of curious little curves played about the corners of her lips. " Well, all I can say," said the cook, " is, that he's a very handsome man." " Handsome ! " exclaimed Robbins, " I don't call a man handsome as can't shave, and never cuts his LADY MAUDE'S MANIA. 71 greasy hair. Handsome! Yah, a low, macaroni- eating, lazy rony, that's what he is. There's heaps of 'em always walking about outside the* furren church doors, I've seen 'em myself." " But some of 'em's exiles, Mr. Robbins," said the stout, amiable-looking cook. " I have 'eared as some on 'em's princes in disguise." " My faith ! " ejaculated Mademoiselle Justine, sar- donically. " Yes, ma'amselle, I ayve," said cook, defiantly, " I don't mean Frenchy exiles, with their coats but- toned up to their chins in Leicester Square, because they ain't got no washing to put out, but Hightalian exiles." " Bah ! " ejaculated Mademoiselle Justine, " that for you ! What know you ? " and she snapped her fingers. " Pr'aps a deal more than some people thinks, and I don't like to sit still and hear poor people sneered at because they are reduced to music." " But I don't call that music," said Robbins, con- temptuously. " Don't you, Mr. Robbins ?— then I do." At this stage of the proceedings Dolly could bear her feelings no more, but got up and left the hall to ascend the back stairs to her own room, and sit down in a corner, and cover her face with her natty apron. a Pore gell," exclaimed the cook. " It's too bad." " What is too bad, Madame Downes ? " said Made- moiselle Framboise. " To go on like that before the pore thing;, She can't help it" i% LADY MAUDE* S MANIA. " Bah ! " ejaculated the French maid, " it is dis- gust. An organ man ! The child is affreusement stupider " I have a heart of my own," sighed the cook. " Yais, but you do not go to throw it to a man like that, Madame Downes." " Hear, hear ! " said the butler, and there was a chorus of approval. " I say it is disgust — disgrace," continued Made- moiselle Justine. "The girl is mad, and should be sent home to the bon papa down in the country." " I have a heart of my own," said Mrs. Downes again. " Ah, you needn't laugh, Mary Ann. Some people likes footmen next door." The housemaid addressed tossed her head and exclaimed, " Well, I'm sure ! " " And so am I," replied the cook, regardless of the sneers and smiles of the rest of the domestics at the table. " As I said before, I have a heart of my own, and if some people follow the example of their betters," — here Mrs. Downes stared very hard at the contemptuous countenance of the French maid, — "and like the furren element, it's no business of nobody's." Madame Justine's eyes flashed. "Did you make that saying for me, Madame Downes ? " she flashed out viciously. " Sayings ain't puddens," retorted cook. " I say, make you that vairy witty jeer for me ? " cried Mademoiselle Justine viciously. " What I say is," continued the cook, who, having a blunter tongue, stOQcl on her defence, but heaping LADY MAUDE? S MANIA. 73 up dull verbiage round her position as a guard against the Frenchwbman's sharp attack, " that a man's a man, and if he's a furrener it ain't no fault of his. I should say he's a count at least, and he's very hand- some." " Counts don't count in this country," said Robbins smiling, and waiting for the applause of the table. " Count indeed ! " cried Mademoiselle Justine. " Count you the fork and spoons, Mr. Robbins, and see that these canaille music men come not down the air — ree. As for that green-goose girl Preen — Bah ! she is a little shild for her mamma to vip and send to bed wizout her soop — paire. Madame Downes, you are a vairy foolish woman." Mademoiselle Justine rose from her seat, and made a movement as if to push back a chair ; but she had been seated upon a form which accommodated half a dozen more domestics, and in consequence she had to climb out and glide toward the door, through which she passed with a rustle like that of a cloud of dead leaves swept into a barn. "You've put ma'amselle out, Mrs. Downes," said Robbins with condescension. " That's easy enough done, Mr. Robbins. It's her furren blood. I don't like young people to be sneered at if they're a bit tender. I've got a heart of my own." " And a very good heart too, Mrs. Downes," said the butler. " Hear, hear," said Joseph the footman. " Hear, hear, hear, hear, hear ! " cried the page-boy, a young gentleman who lived in a constant state c 74 LAD Y MA UD&S MANIA. suppression, and consequently in his youthful vivacity was always seeking an opportunity to *come to the surface. This appeared to him to be one. His chief had paid a compliment which had been cheered by the said chiefs first-lieutenant Joseph, so Henry, the bearer of three rows of buttons, every one of which he longed to annex for purposes of play, cried " hear, hear, hear," as the footman's echo, and rapped loudly upon the table with the haft of his knife. A dead silence fell upon the occupants of the servants' hall, and Henry longed to take flight ; but the butler fixed him as the Ancient Mariner did the wedding guest, and held him with his glittering eye. " There, I knowed you'd do it," whispered the foot- man. "You're always up to some of your man- oeuvres." " Henry," said the butler in his most severe tones, and with the look upon his countenance that he generally reserved for Lord Barmouth, " I don't know where you were brought up, my good boy, and I don't want to know, but have the goodness to recol- lect that you are now in a nobleman's service, where, as there is no regular steward's room for the upper servants, you are allowed to take your meals with your superiors. I have before had occasion to com- plain of your behavior, eating with your knife, breath- ing all over your plate, and sniffing at the table in a most disgusting way." " Hear, hear," said Joseph in a low voice, and the boy thought it additionally hard that he was to be chidden while his fellow servant in livery went free. LAD Y MA UD&$ MANIA. 75 , Mr. Robbins bowed his head graciously to his underling's softly-breathed piece of adulation, and continued— " Once for all, my good boy, I must request that if you do not wish to be sent into the knife place to partake of your meals, you will cease your low pot- house conduct, and behave yourself properly." The butler turned away with a dignified air, while Henry screwed up his face as if about to cry, bent down his head, and began to kick the footman's legs under the table — a playful piece of impudence that the lofty servitor did not resent, Master Henry the buttons knowing too much of things in general appertaining to the pantry ; sundry stealings out at night when other people were in bed, and when returns were made through the area door, and from good fellowship, for though there was a vast difference in years and size, Joseph's brain was of much the same calibre as that of the boy. " Mrs. Downes," said the butler, after clearing his Voice with a good cough, " your sentiments do you credit. You have a heart of your own, and what is more, you are English." " 1 am, Mr. Robbins, I am," said the lady addressed, and she wiped her eyes. "Furreners are furreners," continued the butler didactically; "but what I always will maintain is, that the English are so thoroughly English." There was a murmur of applause here which warmed the imposing-looking butler's heart, and he continued — "Your sentiments do you the greatest of credit, Mrs. Downes ; but you are too tender." »6 LADY MAUD&S MANIA. • "I can't help it, Mr. Robbins," said the lady pathetically. "And I'm sure no one wishes that you should, Mrs. Downes, for I say it boldly so that all may hear, — except the two lady's maids who have left the hall, — that a better cook, and a kinder fellow-servant never came into a house." Another murmur of applause, and the cook sighed, shed two more tears, and felt, to use her own words, afterward expressed, "all of a fluster." " Mr. Robbins," she began. " I beg your pardon, madam, I have not finished," said the butler, smiling. " I only wished to observe, and I must say it even if I give offence to your delicate susceptibilities, madam, that that furren papist fellow with the organ haunts Portland Place like a regular demon, smiling at weak woman, and taking of her captive, when it's well known what lives the poor creatures live out Saffron Hill way. I should feel as I was not doing my duty toward my fellow creatures if I didn't protest against such a man having any encouragement here." li Hear, hear," said the footman again. " Some impudent person once observed," continued the butler, " that when a footman married he took a room in a mews for his wife, and furnished it with a tub and a looking-glass," " Haw, haw, haw ! " laughed the buttons. " Henry, be silent, or you will have to leave the room," said the butler, sternly. "A tub and a looking-glass, I repeat," he added, as he looked LADY MAUDES MA MIA. 77 round, " so that his wife might try to get her living by washing, and see herself starve." A murmur of approval rose here from every one but the footman, who looked aggrieved, and kicked Henry beneath the table. " But what I say is this," continued the butler " the pore girl who lets herself be deluded into marry- ing one of those lazy rony organ men may have the looking-glass, for Italians is a vain nation ; but from what I know of 'em, the pore wives will never have the tub, let alone the soap." The butler smiled, and there was a burst of laughter, which ceased as the cook took up the defence. "Maybe," she said, "but what I say is this, as I've said before, I can feel for a woman in love, for I have a heart of my own." It was self-evident, for that heart was thoroughly doing its work of pumping the vital current so ener- getically, that the blood flushed the lady's cheeks, rose into her forehead, and was beginning to suffuse her eyes, which looked angry, when a loud peal at the front door bell acted as a check to the discussion, Joseph going off to answer the summons as all arose, and the butler, to finish the debate, exclaimed — " Mark my words, no good won't come of it if that man's allowed to haunt this house, and — Well, of all the impudence ! there he is again. I shall have to call her ladyship's attention to the fact." For Luigi was slowly grinding out the last new waltz, and it had such an effect on the more frivolous 1 7 S LADY MAUDE'S MANIA. of the hired servants, that as soon as their elders had quitted the underground banquetting hall, two of them clasped each other, and began to spin round the place, proving that music had charms as well as the man. LADY MAUDE? S MANIA. 79 CHAPTER VIII. FAMILY MATTERS. Charley Melton, made up his mind that he would behave honorably, and he called several times more at Portland Place, till it became evident that there was no prospect of his being admitted. He saw the carriage twice in the Park, and bowed, to obtain a cold recognition from her ladyship the first time, the cut direct from her the second time, and an agonized look from Maude. " That's the secpnd time this week," he muttered angrily ; " I must end this." He stopped short, leaning over the rails and watching the carriage as it was pulled up, and a fashionably-dressed gentleman went to the door and stood talking for some consider- able time. " My rival, I suppose. Sir Grantley Wilters, then, is to be the happy man ? Here, come along, Joby, it is time to take to stratagem. I wonder what has become of Tom ? " The next day a special message was sent to that medical attendant, Doctor Todd, Lady Barmouth imploring him to come directly, as Maude was so ill that she was growing uneasy. " Humph ! " said the doctor, " poor girl. But she must wait her turn." He hurried through his interviews with his regular patients, and reached Portland Place just as lunch was So LADY MAUD&S MANIA. going in ; but it was put back while Lady Barmouth took him into the drawing-room, where Maude was seated. " Ah, my dear ! " he exclaimed, in his cheery way. (i Why, I say, what's the matter ? " He sat talking to her for some little time, wrote a prescription, and then rose. " There, Lady Barmouth," he said ; " that is all I can do. Give her change and peace of mind, and she will soon be well." " Indeed, doctor," cried her ladyship, " she shall have everything she can wish for. As to peace of mind, why what is there to disturb it? It is our peace of mind that suffers. Poor Sir Grantley Wilters is half distracted about her," " Is he ? " said the doctor, bluntly. " Why, what has it got to do with him ? " " Hush, doctor ! Fie ! " exclaimed her ladyship, smiling, " There, you are making somebody blush. It is too bad." Maude darted an indignant glance at her mother, and with flaming cheeks and eyes full of tears left the room. " Poor girl, she is so hysterical," said her ladyship. a Ah, these young girls, these young girls! Of course you will stay lunch, doctor?" "Yes," he said shortly, "I intended to. I'm precious hungry, and you've put me out of my usual course." "I'm so sorry," said her ladyship; "but it was very good of you to come," as the door opened and the earl came toddling into the room. LADY MAUDE'S MANIA. 81 " Ah, doctor," he said, " doosed glad to see you. Did you hear my leg was threatening again ? " " No/' said the doctor, shaking hands. " We must have a consultation." 44 And forbid so many good things, doctor," said her ladyship, with asperity, " But, my dear, I — I — I'm pretty nearly starved ; it's poverty of blood, I'm sure." " Well, come and have a good lunch," said the doctor. " I'll see that you have nothing to disagree with you." " Thank you, doctor, thank you," said the old gentle- man, as the gong began to sound and they went down, Tryphieand Tom coming out of another room —Maude joining them, looking now quite composed. " I remember when I was a boy," said Lord Bar- mouth, suddenly. " Yes, my love," said her ladyship, stiffly ; " but you've told us that before." " Have I, my dear ? " said his lordship, looking troubled, and then there was a little pause. " I may have a glass of hock, may I not, doctor ? " said the old man, as the luncheon went on. " Eh ? Yes. — I say, what's your name, bring me the hock, some seltzer and a glass," said the doctor to Robbins. •' Yes, my dear," he continued to Tryphie, " I would rather any day go to the Tyrol than along the beaten track through the Alps. The butler brought the hock and seltzer, and a large tumbler, into which such a liberal portion of wine was poured that Lady Barmouth looked horri- fied, and the old gentleman chuckled and squeezed Maude's hand under the table. 82 LADY MAUDE'S MANIA. " Is not that too much, doctor ? " whispered her ladyship. " Eh ? Much ? oh no. Do him good," said the doctor, filling up the glass with seltzer. " There, take that to his lordship." i " I say, father," said Tom, giving her ladyship a mocking smile, " I watched the quantities. I'll mix your hock for you in future." The luncheon went on, the doctor chatting merrily, while his lordship became, under the influence of so strong a dose of medicine, quite garrulous. " I say, doctor," he said, chuckling, " did— did you hear that deuced good story about Lady Grace Moray?" " No," said the doctor ; " what was it ? " " Capital story, and quite true — he, he, he ! w chuckled the old gentleman. " She— she— she— begad, she was disappointed of one fellow, and— and —and, damme if she didn't run off with the butler." " Barmouth ! " exclaimed her ladyship, austerely, " I am glad that the servants are not in the room/' " It's — it's — it's a fact, my dear," said the old gen- tleman, wiping his eyes. " Bolted with him, she did, and —and — and, damme, I forget how it all ended. I say, Tom, my boy, how — how— how the doose did that affair end ? " "Got married and made a fool of herself," said Tom sharply. " Do people always make fools of themselves who marry, Tom ? " said Tryphie in a low voice. " Always," he whispered back, u if they marry people chosen for them in place of those they love." " I must request, Barmouth, my dear, that you do LADY MAUDE'S MANIA. 83 not tell such stories as that They are loathsome and repulsive. Lady Grace Moray comes of a very low type of family. Her grandfather married a butterman's daughter, or something of that kind. They have no breeding." " I — I — I think I left my handkerchief in the draw- ing-room," said his lordship, rising. " Why not ring, my love ? " said her ladyship. " No, no, no, I would rather fetch it myself," said his lordship, who left the room, went up two or three stairs, stopped, listened, and then toddled back to where, on a tray, the remains of a tongue stood in company with an empty vegetable dish or two. There was a great piece, too, of the point quife six inches long lying detached, for the doctor s arm was vigorous, and he had cut the tongue quite through. Such a chance was not offered every day, and it would not only make a couple or three pleasant snacks when his lordship was hungry, but it would keep. He listened : all was still, and, cautiously advancing, he secured the piece of dry firm tongue. Then he started as if electrified. Robbing cough was heard on the stairs, and his lordship dabbed the delicacy away in the handiest place, and turned towards the door as the butler appeared in the hall. " What game's he up to now ? " said Robbins to himself, as, with his memory reminding him of the trouble he had had to sponge and brush the tails of the old gentleman's dress coats* which used to be found matted with gummy gravies and sauces, so that the pocket linings had had to be several times replaced, he opened the dining-room door* 84 LADY MAUDE'S MANIA. "I — I — I think I left my handkerchief upstairs, Robbins," said his lordship humbly; and he toddled in again and retook his place. The luncheon' ended, the party rose and stood chatting about the room, while the doctor was in earnest conversation with Maude and her ladyship. "Nothing at all," he said firmly, a but low spirits from mental causes, and these are matters for which mothers and fathers must prescribe." " It's — it's — doosed hard to be so short of money," said his lordship to himself as he was left alone ; and then thinking of the tongue, he tried to get to the door, but a look from her ladyship sent him back. " It's — it's — doosed hard. I shall have to go to little Tryphie again. He, he, he I her ladyship don't know," he chuckled, " I've — I've left her five thousand in my will, bless her. I wish she'd buy me some more Bath buns." He crossed to where the bright little girl was standing, and she advanced to him directly. " Can you lend me another five shillings, Tryphie ? " he whispered. " Yes, uncle," she replied, nodding and smiling. " I'll get it and put it under the china dog on the right hand cabinet." "That's right, my dear; it's — it's — it's so doosed awkward to be so short, and I don't like to ask her ladyship." •' Well, I must go," said the doctor loudly. " Good- bye all. Good-bye, my dear," he continued to Maude. Then he pinched Tryphie's cheek, shook hands with the old man ? and was gone, LADY MAUDE* S MANIA. 85 " So clever," sighed her ladyship, " that we look over his rough, eccentric ways. I believe that I should not have been here now if it had not been for his skill." "Then'd — n the doctor," said Tom to himself, for he was in a very unfilial mood. * Oh, by the way," said the gentleman spoken of, as he came hurriedly back, sending the door open so that it banged upon a chair, " Lady Maude, my dear, you are only to take that medicine when you feel low." As he spoke he hitched on his light overcoat that he had partly donned in the hall, and then, fishing in one of the pockets for his gloves, he brought out a piece of tongue. " Oh, bless my soul ! " muttered his lordship ; and he toddled towards the window. "What the dickens is this?" cried the doctor, holding out his find, and putting up his double eye- glass. " Tongue, by jingo ! Is this one of your tricks, my Lord Tom ? " " No," roared Tom, as he burst out laughing, and followed his father to the window, where the old gentleman was nervously gazing forth. " I'm so sorry," said her ladyship, quivering with indignation. " It must have been one of the ser- vants, or the cat." " Well," said the doctor, solemnly, " I'll swear I didn't steal it. I might perhaps have pocketed some- thing good, but I hadn't got this coat on." "Pray say no more, doctor," said her ladyship. " Robbins, bring a plate and take this away." 86 LADY MAUDE'S MANIA. " Yes, my lady/' said the butler, who was waiting in the hall to show the doctor out ; and he made matters worse by advancing with a stately march, taking a plate and silver fork from the sideboard, removed the piece of tongue from the doctor's fingers with the fork ; and then deftly thrusting it off with his thumb on to the plate, he marched out with it, the ladies all bursting into busy conversation to cover his retreat. Then the doctor went, and a general ascent towards the drawing-room was commenced, his lordship hanging back, and Tom stopping to try and avert the storm. " Such idiotic — such disgraceful proceedings, Bar- mouth," exclaimed her ladyship, closing the dining- room door. "There, that will do, mother/' said Tom, quietly. " Lookers-on see most of the game." " What do you mean, sir ? " said her ladyship. "Why this," said Tom, savagely. "There, don't faint ; because if you do I shan't stop and attend you." " If I only dared to face her like my son Tom," said his lordship to himself; " damme, he's as brave as a little lion, my son Tom." " Sir, your language is most disgraceful," said her ladyship, haughtily. " That's what all people think when something is said that they don't like. Now look here, mother ; I don't mean to stand by any more and see the old man bullied." " Bless him, I am proud of that boy," thought his lordship. " Damme, he's little, but he '3 a man," LADY MAUDE'S MANIA. 87 44 Diphoos ! " cried her ladyship. " I don't say it was not stupid of the gov'nor to go and take that piece of tongue, and put it in the wrong pocket." " But, my dear boy, I " " Hold your tongue, gov'nor/' cried Tom. " It was stupid and idiotic of him perhaps, but not one half so stupid and idiotic as some things I see done here." "Tom, I do not know what you mean," cried her ladyship. " Well, I mean this. It was idiotic to marry Di to liver-pill Goole, as they call him ; and ten times more idiotic to encourage that racing cad, Captain Bellman, here; while it was madness to cut Charley Melton adrift, and try to bring things to an understanding between Maude and that hospital dummy, Wilters." " Your language, sir, is frightful," cried her lady- ship, whose voice was rising in spite of herself. " Hospital dummy ! " " So he is ; I could drive my fist right through his tottering carcase. He's only fit to stuff and put in a glass case as a warning to young men." " I wish — I wish — I wish I could pat him on the back," muttered Lord Barmouth. " He's brave as a lion," " Sir Grantley Wilters has my consent to pay his addresses to your sister," said her ladyship with dignity; " and as for your disgusting remarks about Captain Bellman, he comes here with my consent to see your cousin Tryphie, for whom he will be an excellent parti? 88 LADY MAUDE'S MANIA. "Parti — funeral party. An excellent corpse," cried Tom in a rage, " for, damme, I'll shoot him on his wedding morning before he shall have her." "You will have to leave home, sir, and live in chambers," said her ladyship. u You grow too low for society." "What, and let you have your own way here, mother ! No, hang it, that you shan't. You may stop my allowance, but I stop here ; so don't look blank, dad." " Don't speak angrily to your mamma, my dear boy," said Lord Barmouth. " All right, gov' nor." "As to your friend and companion, whom you brought to this house, and who pretended, like an impostor as he is, to have good expectations " " He never did anything of the kind," said Tom. " He always said he hadn't a rap." " Such a person ought never to have been brought near your sweet, pure-minded sisters," continued her ladyship ; " I found out that he was an impostor, and now I hear that he gambles and is in debt." " Who told you that ? " roared Tom. " Never mind." " But I insist on knowing." "Hush, hush, my boy," said his lordship, twitching Tom's coat. " Be quiet, gov'nor. Who told you that, mamma ? " cried Tom. " I heard it from good authority," said her lady- ship as Lord Barmouth beat a retreat. "Then good authority is a confounded liar," cried Tom, as her ladyship sailed out of the room, and after LADY MAUDES MANIA. 89 he had cooled down a little and looked round, he found his lordship had gone. Tom went into the cloak-room, where he came upon his father sitting on a box, busily spreading a biscuit with some mysterious condiment which he dug out of a pot with a paper knife. *• Poor old Charley," said Tom, not heeding his father's occupation, u he's the soul of honor — a regu- lar trump. Look here, gov'nor," he cried, turning sharply on the old gentleman and making him jump. " Don't you bully me too, my dear boy," said the old man, trembling. " I can't bear it ! " " I'm not going to bully you, gov'nor," cried Tom, laying his hands on the old man's shoulders affection- ately ; " but are you going to stand up for your rights or are you not ? Look here — that tongue ! " "Yes, my boy, I did take it — I own it. I thought I might be hungry to-morrow, I have such a dread- ful appetite, my boy." " Then why not ring and order that pompous old fizzle Robbins to bring you up something to eat ? " " I daren't, my dear boy, I daren't. Her ladyship has given such strict orders to the servants, and I feel so humiliated when they refuse me." " Of course you do, gov'nor. Then why don't you go down to the club ? " " I can't Tom, my boy. There's no credit there, and her ladyship keeps me so horribly short of money." i% It's too bad ; but come, gov'nor. I'm not afraid of mamma, and I'm not nearly so big as you are." " J}ut, my boy," whimpered the old man ? with 3 go LADY MAUDE'S MANIA. piteous look upon his face, " I look bigger than I am, but it isn't all real : there's a deal of padding, Tom, and that's no good. That tailor fellow said I must have a lot of filling out." He drew out his pocket-handkerchief to wipe away a weak tear, while Tom looked at him, half sorry, half amused, laughing at length outright as the poor old man smeared something brown and sticky across his face. " Why, gov'nor ! " he cried reproachfully, as some- thing round and brown and flat fell upon the carpet. " It's only a veal cutlet, my son," said the old man, piteously, as he stooped and picked it up before wiping his face. "You see I didn't know then that I should get the piece of tongue." " Oh, gov'nor, gov'nor ! " cried Tom. " Don't scold me, my dear boy," pleaded the old man. " I am so padded out. There's much less of me when my coat's off. But I'm nothing to what your dear mamma is. Really the way she makes up is a gross imposture. If you only knew what I know, Tom, you'd be astonished." "I know quite enough," growled Tom, "and wouldn't care if she were not so false inside." a Don't say that, Tom, my boy. She's a wonder- ful woman, and means all for the best." " But, my dear old gov'nor," said Tom, " this is all so very weak of you." " Well, it is, my boy." " You must pluck up, or we shall be ruined," con- tinued Tom, taking up a napkin and removing a little tomato 3awce from his parent's brow. LAD V MA UDE'S MANIA. 91 * No, my boy — no, my boy, don't say that ; but I can't bear to ask her ladyship for money. It does make her so cross." " It isn't pleasant," said Tom ; " but there, you go up in the drawing-room, and watch over Maude like a* lion ; I don't want to see her made miserable." "I will, Tom, my boy, I will." " And I say, gov'nor, you will stick up ? " Yes, Tom, my boy, yes," said the old man. "There, you shall see. Going out ? " " Yes, gov'nor, I want to hunt out Charley Melton. I haven't see him for an age. He's always away somewhere." " Give my kind regards, Tom. He's a fine fellow. Damme, I like Charley. But I'm afraid he thinks me very weak." " Nonsense, dad," cried Tom ; " but, I say, what's that in your pocket ? " " Oh, nothing, my son, nothing," said the old man, in a confused way, as Tom pounced upon his pocket and dragged out something in a handkerchief. " Why bless my soul," he cried, in a surprised tone of voice, as he raised his glasses to his eyes, " if it isn't a patty." "Yes, gov'nor, and you've been sitting on it. Now, I say, old fellow, that is weak. Pah ! why it smells of eau-de-Cologne from your handkerchief. You couldn't eat that." " I'm afraid I couldn't, my dear boy," said the old gentleman, wrinkling up his forehead. " Gov'nor, you're incorrigible," cried Tom. " Only this morning Joseph told me in confidence that you had borrowed five shillings of him, and I had to give 92 LADY MAUDE'S MANIA. it him back, leaving myself without a shilling. Hang me, if you do such things as this again, if I don't tell the old lady." a No, no, my boy, pray don't," said the old gentle- man, anxiously, " and I'll never do so any more." "Till the very next time," said Tom, sharply. " Gov'nor, you're afraid of the servants, and you are always stealing something." " I— I— I am a little afraid of Robbins/' faitered the old man gently ; " and that big footman Joseph rather looks at me ; but, Tom, my boy, it ought not to be stealing for me to take my own things." " Well, I suppose not, gov'nor ; but it really is absurd to see you send a chicken bone flying across a drawing- room when you take out your handkerchief, and your coat-tails stiff with gravy." " It is, my son," said the old man, hastily ; " but about Charley Melton. I like him, Tom." "And so do I, father. — He's my friend, and I'll stick to him too." He said the latter words in the hall, as he put on his hat and took his cane, paused to light a very strong cigar of the kind her ladyship detested to smell in the house, and then, with his hat cocked defiantly on one side, sallied out, looking so small in Great Portland Place that he seemed lost. As the door closed upon him, Lord Barmouth came out of the lavatory, and met Robbins the butler and a footman coming to clear away the lunch things. Lord Barmouth looked up and down, and then took the pompous butler by the button. " Robbins," he said, " if her ladyship does not ob- ject, I shall not wear my second dress suit any more," LADY MAUDE* $ MANIA. 93 "Thank you, my lord," said the butler with solemn dignity. " And, Robbins," added his lordship, in a hurried whisper, "what did you do with that piece of tongue ? " " Took it down into the kitchen, my lord." " Ask Mrs, Downes to give it back to you, Rob- bins — for me." " Yes, my lord." " Wrap it up in paper, Robbins." " Yes, my lord." "And by the way, Robbins," continued the old gentleman, after a sharp look round, like a sparrow in fear of cats, " could you oblige me with five pounds ? " " Well really, my lord — you see you owe me '* " Sixty-five, Robbing " And interest, my lord." " Of course, Robbins, of course; and you shall have it all back ; but you see, Robbins, it is not always easy to lay one's hands on a few pounds to give to my son. You know it is quite safe." " Oh, of course, my lord." " I don't like to be so situated that I cannot oblige him with a sovereign now and then." " Of course not, my lord. Will your lordship be good enough to write me an I. O. U. ? " " Certainly, Robbins, certainly. There — there — that's it I. O. U. five pounds — Barmouth. Thank you, Robbins ; you are a most valuable servant" tt Thank you, my lord/' "I've put you down for something handsome in my will, Robbins, so that if I should die some day, 1 04 LADY MAUDE'S MANIA. as I probably shall, you'll burn these I. O. U.'s, Rob- bins, and pay yourself out of what I've left." " Certainly, my lord ; but suppose M "The will is disputed ? Oh no, Robbins, I can do what I like with my money then, and I shall not be ungrateful." The old man took the five pounds and went off, chuckling with delight at being able to supply Tom with a little hard cash next time that gentleman was . short, which would be next day; while the butler said something to himself which sounded like — " Poor old magpie. Well, he ain't a bad sort, and that's more than you can say of the dragon." LAD y MA U£>E l S MANIA. 95 CHAPTER IX, LOVE ME, JUOVE MY DOG. There was gravel to be ground in Hyde Park, but Lady Maude declined to assist in the operation, pleading a bad headache ; so Lady Barmouth took her carriage exercise alone, while his lordship watched till the barouche had gone, when he went up and sat by his child in the drawing-room, and talked to her for a time, ending by selecting a com- fortable chair and going off fast asleep. He had not been unconscious five minutes before Maude heard a bit of a disturbance, and directly after there was a scratching at the drawing-room door. She started and listened, with the color coming and going in her cheeks, when the scratching was repeated, and on her opening the door Joby trotted in, looked at her, gave his tail a wag to the right and a wag to the left. When, catching sight of Lord Barmouth, his canine nature got the better of him, and trotting up to the easy-chair, he sniffed two or three times at his lordship's pocket, ending by laying his massive jowl upon the old man's knee. Maude trembled as she watched the dog, and her face was flaming, but she dared not move. The old gentleman half woke up, and realized the fact of the dog being there, for he put out his thin 96 LADY MAUDE'S MAN /A. -white hand, and patted the great head, and rubbed Joby'sears, muttering softly, " Good dog, then; poor old fellow," and then went off fast asleep. Joby pushed his head a little farther up, and then had another sniff at the pocket. After this, giving his lordship up for a bad job, or roused to a sense of duty, he trotted over to Maude, laid his head in her lap, and stared up at her with his great eyes. It seemed a shame to be so lavish of such sweet kisses, and on a dog's forehead ; but all the same Maude bestowed them there, and the ugly brute blinked and snuffled and whined softly. Suddenly a thought seemed to strike Maude though, and her little fingers began to busy themselves about the dog's collar, to tremble visibly, and at last with a faint cry of joy she detached a note folded in a very small compass, and fitted in a little packet of leather the color of the dog's skin. Trembling with eagerness she was about to open it, when the door was opened, and Robbins entered to announce — " Sir Grantley Wilters." Maude turned from crimson to white, and Joby crept slowly under the couch, resenting an offer made by the fcutler to drive him out by such a display of white teeth that the pompous domestic said to himself that the dog might stay as long as he liked, for it wasn't his place to interfere. Sir Grantley's costume was faultless, for he was a fortune to his tradespeople — the tightest of coats and gloves, the shiniest of boots, and the choicest of " button-holes," displayed in a tiny glass of water pinned in the fold of his coat, as he came in, hat and LADY MAUDE'S MANIA. 97 cane in one hand, and a little toy terrier in the other — one of those unpleasantly diminutive creatures whose legs seem as if they are not safe, and whose foreheads and eyes indicate water on the brain. " Ah, Lady Maude. Delighted to find you alone," said the baronet, advancing and extinguishing the dog with his hat, so as to leave his tightly-gloved hand free to salute the lady. " I am not alone," said Maude quietly, and she pointed to his lordship's chair. " No : to be sure. Asleep ! Well, I really thought you were alone, don't you know." " Papa often comes and sits with me now," said Maude, quietly. " Very charming of him, very," said Sir Grantley. "Quite well?" " Except a headache," said Maude. " Sorry — very," said the baronet, hunting for his glass, which was now hanging between his shoulders. "Bad things headaches, very. Should go for a walk." "I preferred staying at home this afternoon," said Maude. " Did you, though ! Ah ! " said Sir Grantley. " Sorry about the headache. Always take brandy and soda for headache I do, don't you know. By the way, Lady Maude," he continued, taking his hat off the little dog as if he were performing a conjuring trick, " I bought this beautiful little creechaw in Regent street just now. Will you accept it from me?" 98 LADY MAUDE'S MANIA. " Oh, thank you, no," said Maude. " I'm sure mamma would not approve of my accepting such a present." " Oh, yes, I asked her yesterday, don't you know, and she said you'd be most happy. Very nice specimen, not often found so small. May I set it down ? " "Oh, certainly," said Maude, coloring with annoy- ance ; and evidently very glad to get rid of the little animal, the baronet set it down and it began to make a tour of the room. " Don't be nervous about accepting presents from me," said Sir Grantley, " because I shall bring you a great many." " I beg you will not, Sir Grantley," said Maude, flushing. " You must really by now be quite sure that such attentions are distasteful to me." " Not used to them, you know," said the baronet smiling; "but I have her ladyship's full permission, and we shall understand each other in time. Old gentleman sleeps well." " Papa is getting old, and his health is feeble," said Maude, rather indignantly. " Yes, very," said the baronet. — " I don't want to be a bore, but I've said so little to you about our future." "Our future?" u Yes ; it's all settled. I proposed down at Hurst, and thought it was all over; but her ladyship kindly tells me that I may hope." " Sir Grantley Wilters," cried Maude, rising, " I am not of course ignorant of what mamma's wishes are, LADY MAUDE'S MANIA. 99 but let me tell you as a gentleman that this subject is very distasteful to me, and that I can never, never think otherwise of you than I do now." " Oh, yes, you will," said Sir Grantley, in a most unruffled manner. " You are very young, don't you know. Think differently by and bye. Bad job this about poor Melton." Maude started, and her eyes dilated slightly. " Thought he was a decent fellow once, but he's regularly going to the dogs." " Mr, Melton is a friend of mine, Sir Grantley — a very dear friend of mine," cried Maude, crushing the stiff paper of the note she held in her hand. "Say was, my dear Maude," said Sir Grantley, making pokes at the pearl buttons on his patent leather boots with his walking cane. " Poor fellow ! Was all right once, but he's hopelessly gone now." " I will not believe it," cried Maude indignantly. " It is cruel and ungentlemanly of you to try to blacken Mr. Melton thus when he is not present." " Cruel perhaps, but kind," said Sir Grantley ; " un- gentlemanly, no." He drew himself up slightly, as he spoke. " Poor beggar, can't help being poor, you know. They say " " Sir Grantley, I will not believe anything against Mr. Melton," cried Maude with spirit. " Not till you have proved it, my dear child. I don't want to pain you, but I know that the thoughts of Charles Melton have kept you from listening to me. Now, my dear Maude, if I were out of the race, you could not marry a man who is hopelessly in the hands of the Jews. Couldn't do it, you know; and they do say » 79565B 100 LADY MAUDE'S MANIA. " Sir Grantley Wilters," cried Maude, with her head thrown back, " these are cruel calumnies. Mr. Charles Melton is a gentleman, and the soul of honor. I shall tell him your words." " I shall be very glad to retract them, and apolo- gize," said the baronet calmly ; and then he busied himself in fixing his glass, for the little toy terrier had suddenly made a dead set at one end of the couch, where from beneath the chintz cover there peered out one very large prominent and peculiar eye, which kept blinking at the terrier in the calmest manner, its owner never attempting to move in spite of the angry demonstrations of the new- comer. At last its demonstrations became so loud that, not seeing the great eye himself, the baronet rose slowly, drove the terrier into the back drawing-room and closed the door. "A little new to the place, don't you know," he said. " There, I'm going now ; I did not mean to blacken Mr. Melton's character, but ask your brother to inquire.; Sorry for any man to go to the bad. Gone regularly. Good-day." He took Maude's hand and kissed the tips of her fingers, while she was too much agitated to resist. Then backing to the door, he smiled, kissed his glove, and was gone. " Oh, this is monstrous ! " cried Maude in anguished tones, when she remembered the note and opened it hastily, to read a few lines full of manly love and" respect ; and as she read of her wooer's determination never to give her up, her heart grew stronger in its faith. LADY MAUDE'S MANIA. 101 " I knew it was false," she exclaimed, proudly. " How dare he calumniate him like that ! " Then going to a writing table, she glanced at her father,- saw that he still slept, and, blushing at her duplicity, she wrote a note, folded it so that it would go in the tiny leather pocket, and in a low voice called the dog. Joby came out directly, and laid his great head in her lap, while the note was securely placed in its receptacle. " Now go to your master, good dog," she cried, kissing him once more, and at the word " master " Joby started to the door and looked back, when Maude followed and opened it. The dog trotted downstairs and settled himself under the porter's chair in the hall till the door was opened. Then he trotted off to his master's chambers. Meanwhile, as soon as she had despatched her messenger, Maude seated herself upon the carpet by her father, and laid her cheek against his hand. He opened his eyes directly, saw who it was, and laid his other hand upon her head. "Ah, Maude, my pet," he said. "I have / been sitting here with my eyes closed." "Yes, papa. Did you hear what Sir Grantley Wilters said ? " : " No, my child. Has — has — he been here ? " "Yes, dear." " Then I suppose I must have been quite asleep." "Yes, papa— for quite an hour. — Papa, dear." " Yes, my love." " I cannot rest happy \tfth any secret from you/' said the girl, with averted head, and her cheeks burn- 102 LADY MAUDE* S MANIA. ing for shame at the clandestine correspondence she was carrying on. " That's right, my darling," said the old man, pat- ting the soft fair hair and smoothing it over her fore- head. " Papa, dear," she continued, after a long pause, during which she fought hard to nerve herself for what she had to say. " Yes, my child. There, you're not afraid of me.'' " Oh, no, dear," she cried, drawing his arm around her neck, and holding his hand with both hers to her throbbing bosom. " Papa, I'm afraid — " " Afraid, my dear ? " "Afraid that I love Mr. Melton very dearly." She hid her face upon the withered old hand, and the burning blood crimsoned her soft white neck at this avowal. « Well— well— well ! He— he— he ! " chuckled the old man. " I — I — I don't see anything so very shocking in that, Maude. Charley Melton is a doosed fine fellow, and I like him very much in- deed." " Oh, papa, papa," cried Maude joyfully ; and she turned, flung her arms round his neck, and hid her face in his bosom. " Yes, Maude," he continued. " He's a gentleman, and a man of honor, though he's poor like the rest of us." " Thank God — thank God ! " murmured Maude, as the words made her heart throb with joy. " His father was a gentleman too and a man of honor, though a bit wild. He was my junior at LADY MAUDE'S MANIA. 103 Eton. I like Charley Melton, and though I should hate the man who tried to rob me of my little pet here, I don't think I should be very hard on him." " Yap — yap — yap ! " came from the back drawing- room, and the old gentleman looked inquiringly at his child. " It is a pet dog," she said contemptuously, " that Sir Grantley Wilters has brought as a present for me." " Don't have it, my dear/' said the old gentleman, eagerly. " I wouldn't. He's a miserable screw of a fellow, that Wilters. I don't like him, and her lady- ship's always trying to bring him forward. She'll be wanting to make him marry you next." " Didn't you know, papa ? " cried Maude. " Know, my darling ? Know what ? " " He has proposed to mamma for my hand." "Then — then — then," cried the old man, indig- nantly, " he — he — he shan't have it. If my Maude is to be nurse to any man, she shall be nurse to me. He — he don't want a wife." The old man shook his head angrily, and then patted and caressed the fair young girl who clung to him for protection. What his protection was worth he showed when a carriage stopped at the door, and her ladyship's trumpet tones were heard soon after on the stairs. "Maude, my darling," he said, "here's her lady- ship. I — I think I'll slip off this way down to my study." He went out by one door, timing himself carefully, $s her ladyship came in at the other, and began 104 LADY MAUDES MANIA. praising the "lovely" little pet dog which Sir Grantley had left, to which the little brute replied by snapping at her fiercely as she approached her hand.. All the same though it had to make friends with her ladyship, who adopted it from the next day, Maude stubbornly refusing to have anything to do with the black and tan specimen of the canine race wrought by the " fancy" in filigree. LADY MAUDE'S MANIA. 105 CHAPTER X. love's messengers. u How a young lady as calls herself a young lady can bemean herself by making a pet of a low-bred, ill- looking dog like that, I can't think/' said Mr. Robbins, laying himself out for a speech in the servants' hall. "That's a nice enough little tarrier as Sir Grantley Wilters brought, and she won't have none of it, but leaves it to her ladyship." " Yes," said the footman, " and a nice mess is made, with sops and milk and cutlets all over the carpet." " Joseph," said the butler with dignity, " it is not the place of a young man like you in livery to find fault with the acts of your superiors. Servants as do such things never rises to be out of livery." "Thanky, sir," said Joseph, who, being a young man of a lively imagination and much whiskers, turned his head, squinted horribly at an under house- maid, and made her giggle. " Such a dog as that ugly brute as comes brushing into the house every time the door is opened is only fit to go with a costermonger or a butcher." " Well, I'm sure, Mr. Robbins," said the cook, who for reasons of her own had a weakness for tradesmen in the latter line, " butchers are as good as butlers any day." io6 LADY MAUDE'S MANIA. "Perhaps they are, Mrs. Downes — perhaps they are not," said the butler with dignity; "but what I say is, Mr. Melton ought to have known better than ever to have brought such a beast into a gentleman's house." " That for your opinion, Mr. Robbins," said Made- moiselle Justine, coloring up and snapping her fingers. " I know what you think," she said, speaking in a high-pitched, excited voice. "You think that a lady should admire scented men in fine tailor's clothes and flowers, and wiz zere leetle wretched dogs. Bah ! Tish ! A woman loves the big and ugly and ster — r — r — rong. She can be weak and beautiful her- self. Is it not so, my friends ? Yes." Mademoiselle Justine shook her head, tightened her lips, and with sparkling eyes looked round the table, ending with heightened color and patting her little bottine upon the floor. " Well, that dog's ugly enough anyhow," said Robbins, smiling faintly, and making a second chin above his cravat. " As for that Mr. Melton " "Ah, bah! stop you there," cried Mademoiselle Justine. " I do not say he is ugly, but he is big and sterong and has broad shouldaire. He is all a man — tout-a-fait all a — quite a man." There was another sharp burst of nods and jerks at this. " You think, you, that my young lady will marry this Sir Wilters ? That for him ! He is a man for the Maisoii Dieu or the Invalides. He marry ! ha, ha, ha! I could blow him out myself. Poof! He is gone." LADY MAUDE'S MANIA. 107 Mademoiselle Justine blew some imaginary bit of fluff from her fingers as she spoke, apparently shook her head into a kind of notch or catch in the spine, and then sat very upright and very rigid, while the butler said grace and the party broke up. Lunch had been over in the dining-room some time, and her ladyship was going out for a drive. Maude had again declined, and her ladyship had smiled, knowing that Sir Grantley Wilters would probably call. Her ladyship was wonderfully made up, and looked her best, for Monsieur Hector Launay from Upper Gimp Street had had an interview with her that morning. There had been a consultation on freckles, and a large mole which troubled her lady- ship's chin had been condemned to death, executed with some peculiar acid, and its funeral performed and mourning arranged with a piece of black court plaster, which now looked like a beauty spot upon the lady's chin. Her gloves, of the sweetest pearl gray, fitted her plump hands to perfection, and she was quite ready to go out. " Where is your papa, dear Maude," said her lady- ship, stopping to smell a bouquet. "Ah me, how sweet ! How kind Sir Grantley is, and what taste he has in flowers." " Papa is in the library," said Maude, quietly, and she glanced nervously towards the door, * Come then, a sweet," cried her ladyship ; " and he shall go and have a nice ride in the carriage, he shall, and look down and bark at all the dirty dogs in the road." 108 LADY MAUDE'S MANIA. As she showed her second best teeth in a large smile, the little terrier took it to be a challenge of war, and displayed his own pigmy set ; but after a due amount of coaxing, and the gift of a lump of sugar, he permitted himself to be caught and placed beneath her ladyship's plump arm, presenting to a spectator who had a side view a little head cocking out in front, and a little tail cocking out behind — nothing more. "I shall be back by five, I dare say, Maude. Where is Tryphie ? " "I am here, aunt, quite ready," said a cheerful voice, and the bright little girl appeared at the door. " You are not quite ready : you have only one glove on. Tryphie, you might pay some respect to those who find you a home and protection." The girl colored slightly but made no answer, only exchanged glances with Maude, and kissed her hand to her. " Dear me ! " exclaimed her ladyship, " where did I put my flafon ? Oh, I remember." She marched in a stately manner with the roll of a female beadle, or an alderman in his gold chain of office, to an Indian cabinet, opened a drawer and inserted her hand. " Why, what is this ? " she exclaimed, drawing out something whitey brown and throwing it down with an ejaculation of annoyance. " Disgusting ! " The toy terrier uttered a sharp yelp of excitement, leaped from her ladyship's arms on to a table, upsetting a china cup and saucer, bounded on to the floor and seized that which her ladyship had rejected — to wit, a savory-looking chicken bone, and pro- ceeded to denude it of its flesh. LADY MAUDE'S MANIA. 109 " I declare your papa grows insufferable," cried her ladyship. " His brain must be softening. I shall consult the doctor about him." Certainly it was very annoying, for her ladyship's pearly gray Parisian glove had a broad brown smear of osmazome across it, and all due to Lord Bar- mouth's magpie-like trick of hiding scraps of food away for future consumption, in Indian cabinets and china jars, and then forgetting the cache he had made. Mademoiselle Justine was summoned, a fresh pair of gloves obtained and put on with the maid's assist- ance, by which time the dog had polished the bone, and probably in his own tongue, being a well-bred animal, said a grace and blessed Lord Barmouth. Then he was once more taken up, his mouth and paws wiped by Justine on one of her ladyship's clean handkerchiefs; Tryphie nodded a good-bye to her cousin, to whom she had hardly dared to speak, and then followed her ladyship downstairs. Maude rose, trembling and in dread lest something she feared should occur, for her ladyship was later than usual in going out, and this was a Wednesday, which day was sacred to the canine post. In fact, as Maude heard the steps of the carriage rattled down with a great deal of noise — her ladyship encouraged her servants to bang them down well, for it let the neighbors know she kept a carriage and was going out — there was a pattering of feet, and as she opened the door, Joby came trotting in, with his great eyes full of animation, and the grinning smile in which he indulged a little more broad, for he had rushed in ( HO LADY MAUDE S MANIA. between the footman's legs nearly upsetting him as the door was opened, in his eagerness to play postman for his master. a Good dog, then ! " whispered Maude, and then her heart seemed to stand still, for the carriage did not drive off, there was a rustling of silks on the stairs, and her ladyship came panting up. Maude threw herself, coloring vividly, into a bergere chair, and Joby dived under the couch, not leaving so much as the point of his tail visible as her ladyship sailed into the room and looked hastily round. " Maude," she cried, "there is some mystery here. I insist on knowing what this means." There was no reply, but Tryphie came in, and darted a sympathetic glance at the poor girl, mentally wishing that Tom were at home. " I — in — sist upon knowing what this means." " What, mamma ? " said Maude, huskily. " That dog ; where is he ? Mr. Melton's hideous wretch. Here : dog, dog,* dog!" she cried. She might have called till she was speechless, for Joby would not have moved. All the same, though, he was to be stirred, for her ladyship, now in a tower- ing passion, set down the toy terrier upon a chair, when it immediately leaped to the carpet, barking furiously, and made a dead set at the s